Unfortunately, if it were to be spun out, cost cutting by the buyer would make recent staff reductions seem like nothing. The standalone revenue just isn't there to support the burn rate.
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I'd bet that if Digital is bought, they'd buy the IP and nothing else.
No leading tech company will touch Digital with a 10-foot pole. Failure after failure there and the Microsoft's and Amazon's of the world are already knocking it out of the park. Why purchase a bunch of duds that can't figure out how to build a successful business?
Digital would most likely be spun off to Microsoft who wants to enter the IIOT space. A partnership with GED would allow them to stay engaged with the industrial assets. Plus - Predix does not require GE devices - so makes even more sense.
Frankly - I hope GE dies a miserable and painful death!
IF a breakup happened, Digital can always go the way of Genpact or some JV with another company.
A breakup won't be easy due to high debt/pension obligations and highly integrated horizontal services within the company but its not impossible as GE can always offshore many of the horizontal services.
With the cash on hand and proceeds from any offloading of companies, GE can make it work and slowly get rid of Corporate or just have the Corporate function file bankruptcy and use the cash to set the businesses up as independent entities.
Actually, it does kind of make sense to break up the BU's. Part of the issue is Wall Street doesn't like big conglomerates anymore. They want companies that are lean and industry leaders. Having all of the BU's under one umbrella hurts a business like Aviation who may have 10 priorities they want to focus on in 2018, but only two get approved to make it fair to Power or other BU's.
GE isn't going to break up. It amazes me how many people still trust everything they read on the Internet these days. Anyone who claims to know is lying but the complexity of trying to pull the various BUs apart does not make sense from an ROI standpoint.
Repent, the end is near!
Digital will disappear. Geez...it was supposed to be the big one...
Does it matter ? And I mean does Digital really matter ... there is no sell off value without indutrsial assets. You can compete Apple, Microsoft and IBMs of the world