GE, Fanuc to end joint venture

Charlottesville, Virginia – GE and Fanuc have agreed to dissolve their GE Fanuc Automation Corp. joint venture, the companies have announced. The breakup of the 23-year JV is expected to be completed by the end of this year.

This move would allow each company to refocus its investments to grow its existing businesses and pursue its respective core industry expertise, according to a joint statement.

Established in 1986 by the joint investments of GE and Fanuc, GE Fanuc Automation Corp. currently serves a wide range of industries around the world including the energy, water, consumer packaged goods, government defense, and telecoms industries. The JV delivers hardware and software, services, automation and embedded computing systems; as well as CNC products.

Fanuc honorary chairman Dr. Seiuemon Inaba said: “Our joint venture has achieved great success toward its original mission, which was to cooperate on the global growth and technical development of the PLC and CNC business. Over this time period, markets and opportunities also have changed dramatically, and both companies further expanded into adjacent segments.

Today’s market conditions are such that it’s imperative we pursue these expanded opportunities, and while we have achieved great things together, it’s in both our best interests that we focus our efforts on industry opportunities unique to our respective companies and that will deliver greater benefits to both our companies."

For GE, this change will mean a continued, intense focus on serving our customers around the world while continuing to invest in significant growth platforms, said GE Fanuc Intelligent Platforms CEO Maryrose Sylvester. These, he said, include process control systems, enterprise and automation software.

Under the terms of the agreement:· GE retains the software, services, embedded systems and control systems businesses globally. The company will be known as GE Intelligent Platforms, and will be led by Sylvester.· Fanuc retains the global CNC business.