If it ain't broke, don't fix it -- at least not much, according to GE Healthcare: The industry colossus has announced that its impending healthcare spinoff will continue to be called GE HealthCare, albeit with a slightly amended spelling.
GE HealthCare will cut loose in early 2023, with a new purple brand color but the same GE monogram, the company said. After its transition is complete, it will be listed on the Nasdaq Stock Market under the symbol GEHC.
In early 2024, the firm plans to spin off its Renewable Energy, Power, Digital, and Energy Financial Services under the brand name GE Vernova (a combination of "ver" from "verdant" and "nova," or "new"); a third company comprising its aviation business, will be called GE Aerospace.
GE first announced its intention to split into three separate companies in 2018, and in 2021, confirmed the plan. In a video conversation between CEO Larry Culp and GE's chief marketing officer, Linda Boff, Culp emphasized the importance of building on GE's long-term brand trust.
"The GE brand has tremendous intrinsic value," Culp said. "The decision to retain the GE name and monogram is meant to build on the power and strength of the shared equity of the brand, to leverage heritage of the brand."
GE's involvement in the field of healthcare -- and specifically imaging -- began in 1893, when inventors C.F. Samms and J.B. Wantz founded the Victor Electric Company in Chicago. The two began making x-ray systems in 1896, just a year after Wilhelm Röntgen discovered x-rays.
It was almost 100 years later that GE bought Technicare from Johnson & Johnson, which added that firm's installed base of CT scanners to GE's operations; a pioneer in CT scanner manufacturing, GE installed its first system in the mid-1970s. In the 1980s, it launched a line of MRI devices under the now well-known brand name Signa, and in 1998, the company further expanded its imaging footprint with the purchase of ultrasound developer Diasonics Vingmed. This modality expansion continued in 2001 with GE's acquisition of Imatron and in 2003 with the purchase of contrast media firm Amersham.
"Built on a foundation of lean and innovation, these brands will continue our mission of building a world that works and provide our customers with an important reminder of the strengths they value in GE," Culp said in a statement released on 18 July.
