GE Forms New Software Company in Overhaul of Digital Strategy

General Electric is creating an independent company for its software business, according to Bloomberg.

GE will retain ownership of the new operation, which will have about $1.2 billion of existing software revenue, according to a statement. GE Digital’s leader, Bill Ruh, will step down “to pursue other other opportunities“ as part of the reshuffling.

The company also agreed to sell a majority stake in ServiceMax, a software provider it bought two years ago for $915 million, to technology investment firm Silver Lake. Terms of the latest deal weren’t disclosed.

The moves mark a major shift in GE’s digital strategy as new CEO Larry Culp tries to narrow the focus and pull the company out of one of the biggest crises in its 126-year history. Under former boss Jeffrey Immelt, GE had invested heavily to build a software business to complement its industrial machinery, even adopting the moniker “digital industrial company“ to describe GE.