General Electric launched a digital division on September 14 that it hopes will propel the US industrial conglomerate into the top ranks of the software industry. As the company sheds financial assets to focus on its core industrial businesses, from making aircraft engines and home appliances to equipment for power grids, GE said it was "building the playbook for the new digital industrial world."
The new GE Digital, harnessing all of its digital capabilities, will be led by chief digital officer Bill Ruh, GE's software chief.
"As GE transforms itself to become the world's premier digital industrial company, this will provide GE's customers with the best industrial solutions and the software needed to solve real world problems," said Jeffrey Immelt, GE chairman and chief executive, in a statement.
The Fairfield, Connecticut-based global industrial giant has been shedding financial businesses as it aims to divest $100 billion in assets by the end of 2015. With the sale last week of GE Capital's transportation finance unit to Canada's BMO Financial Group, the company said it had racked up about $85 billion in sales so far this year.