GE Looking to Sell Its Digital Assets
通用電氣尋求出售數字資產

July 31, 2018 -- General Electric is seeking a buyer for key parts of its digital business as the beleaguered industrial conglomerate unwinds a signature initiative of former Chief Executive Jeff Immelt amid a broader retrenchment.

2018年7月31日——通用電氣（GE）正在為其數字業務的關鍵部分尋找買家，因為這家陷入困境的工業集團在更大范圍的裁員中放棄了前首席執行官杰夫·伊梅爾特（Jeff Immelt）的簽名倡議。

The Boston-based company has hired an investment bank to run an auction for the operations, which GE has poured billions of dollars into, according to people familiar with the matter. It isn’t clear what exactly is for sale and how much a deal could generate.

據知情人士透露，這家總部位于波士頓的公司已經聘請了一家投資銀行負責出售這些通用電氣已經投入了數十億美元的業務。目前尚不清楚通用電氣具體要出售哪些資產，也不清楚這筆交易的規模。

While the process is at an early stage, possible buyers include software companies and other industrial players seeking to become more digital-focused, one of the people said.

一位知情人士表示，雖然這一過程還處于早期階段，但可能的買家包括軟件公司和其他尋求更加聚焦數字化的行業參與者。

GE Digital, a much-touted software unit headquartered in San Ramon, Calif., was key to the strategy of Mr. Immelt, who left last summer. As part of an effort to reorient itself away from financial and media assets and bolster a sluggish stock price, the company built a software platform called Predix that aimed to help industrial customers like utilities and airlines gather and analyze data to better manage their equipment and wring out greater efficiencies.

作為備受矚目的軟件部門，GE Digital總部位于加州圣拉蒙，是于去年夏天離職的伊梅爾特的戰略關鍵。作為將自身從金融和媒體資產上重新定位并支撐低迷股價努力的一部分，該公司開發了Predix軟件平臺，旨在幫助公用事業和航空公司等工業客戶收集和分析數據，以更好地管理其設備，并提高效率。

GE Digital was established as a standalone unit in 2015 to distinguish it from the company's industrial divisions. In the fall of 2016, GE paid $915 million to acquire ServiceMax, a Pleasanton, Calif., company that makes apps for inventory management and workforce scheduling. Executives predicted at the time that GE would hit $15 billion in software sales by 2020 with half of that coming from providing Predix applications to the electricity industry.

GE Digital于2015年成立為獨立部門，以區別于公司的工業部門。2016年秋，通用電氣斥資9.15億美元收購了位于加利福尼亞州普萊森頓的ServiceMax公司，該公司生產用于庫存管理和勞動力調度的應用程序。高管們當時預測，到2020年通用電氣的軟件銷售額將達到150億美元，其中一半來自向電力行業提供Predix應用。

GE said the business had revenue of $4 billion last year, up 12% from 2016. Not all of that would go to a buyer as the company is expected to continue providing software and services to its aviation and power customers.

通用電氣表示，該業務去年的收入為40億美元，比2016年增長12％。由于該公司預計將繼續為其航空和電力客戶提供軟件和服務，因此并非所有這些業務都將出售。

GE's digital push included ramping up research spending and hiring thousands of programmers to develop software for the massive machinery it sells. In 2016, the company spent more than $4 billion developing tools like analytics and machine-learning software. The effort was also at the heart of the company's advertising, which touted GE as a driver of a new "digital industrial" age.

通用電氣的數字化舉措包括增加研究支出和雇傭數千名程序員為其銷售的一眾機器開發軟件。2016年，該公司花費超過40億美元開發分析和機器學習軟件等工具。這項努力也是該公司廣告的核心，該廣告宣稱通用電氣是“數字工業”新時代的驅動者。

But GE has since embarked on a companywide restructuring, sparked by a precipitous decline in its shares last year that hasn't let up in 2018, and now plans to focus on units that make jet engines and power turbines. GE said in June it would spin off its health-care division and sell its ownership stake in oil-services company Baker Hughes. The two businesses, coupled with a railroad unit that is being sold, accounted for a third of GE's $122 billion in revenue last year. GE has said its yearlong portfolio review is complete and it is essentially done with plans to sell $20 billion in assets.

但是通用電氣公司自那以后開始了全公司范圍的重組，這是由去年其股價急劇下滑引發的，而且2018年這一趨勢并沒減弱，現在它計劃將重點放在制造飛機發動機和動力渦輪設備上面。通用電氣曾在今年6月表示，將剝離其醫療部門，出售其在石油服務公司貝克休斯的股份。這兩家公司，加上正在出售的鐵路部門業務，占通用電氣去年1220億美元收入的三分之一。通用電氣表示，其長達一年的業務組合審查已經完成，基本上已經完成了出售200億美元資產的計劃。

Under Mr.Immelt's replacement, John Flannery, the company has scaled backed the mission for GE Digital. The company has cut jobs in the division and said it planned to focus on software for its existing customers and core businesses, rather than creating services for other customers in other industries. Mr. Flannery recently said he wanted GE Digital to break even by 2020.

在伊梅爾特替任者約翰·弗蘭納里（John Flannery）的領導下，該公司已經為GE Digital的使命提供了支持。公司削減了該部門的工作崗位，并表示計劃專注于現有客戶和核心業務的軟件，而不是為其他行業的其他客戶創造服務。弗蘭納里最近表示，他希望GE Digital到2020年實現收支平衡。

Other industrial companies like Siemens AG, along with smaller firms, are using software to help customers get more life out of heavy machinery -- while avoiding unplanned outages -- by using complex data and models to predict how the equipment will perform.

其他工業公司，如西門子公司以及一些較小的公司，正在使用軟件，通過利用復雜的數據和模型來預測設備的性能，幫助客戶從重型機械中獲得更長的生命周期——同時避免計劃外停機。