General Electric launches $1.2bn IoT business

The company will be wholly-owned and independently run, with its own equity structure and its own board of directors.

General Electric also said on Thursday that it has agreed to sell a majority stake in field service management software provider ServiceMax to private equity firm Silver Lake.

Chairman and chief executive officer H. Lawrence Culp Jr, said: "As an early leader in IIoT, GE has built a strong business with its industrial customers thanks to deep domain knowledge and software expertise.

"As an independently operated company, our digital business will be best positioned to advance our strategy to focus on our core verticals to deliver greater value for our customers and generate new value for shareholders."

At 1235 GMT, the shares were up 10.7% at $7.43 in pre-market trade, also benefiting from an upgrade to 'neutral' from 'underweight' by JPMorgan, which said it now sees "a more event-driven, balanced risk reward at current levels".

JPM, which removed the stock from its short idea list, said: "Key to the story, in our view, is the outcome of 'known unknowns' in near term, which are better understood and around which debate is more balanced, as opposed to being overlooked by most bulls in the past.

"We now believe a more negative outcome one these liabilities (equity dilution is one) is at least partially discounted, and it's possible the company can execute its way through an elongated workout that limits near-term downside."