General Electric to split into three companies

One of the nation’s biggest conglomerates will separate into three public corporations, according to an announcement on Tuesday. The aviation wing, the company’s most profitable, will keep the General Electric name, and the healthcare segment will spin off in late 2023, followed by the energy sector by 2024. The company announced the split will cost around $2 million, but it also plans to lower its debt by $75 billion by the end of the year.

Why is it disbanding now? The company has already rid itself of the products most Americans know, including appliances and the light bulbs that GE had been making since the late 1800s. The announcement on Tuesday divvies up an empire created in the 1980s under then-CEO Jack Welch. GE’s stock became one of the most sought after on Wall Street under Welch, who increased the company’s value 30-fold. But the stock began to lag in the early 2000s, and it nearly caved during the Great Recession. Analysts say GE’s move might signal the end of massive conglomerates that struggle to function in a fast-paced digital economy.

Dig deeper: Read Rachel Lynn Aldrich’s obituary of Jack Welch.