Storied General Electric to split into 3 public companies

General Electric, once one of the most widely held stocks in America by individual investors, will divide itself into three public firms focused on aviation, health care and energy.

Founded in 1892 in part by storied inventor Thomas Edison, GE never fully recovered from the heavy damage it suffered during the financial crisis more than a decade ago. The last of the original members of the Dow Jones Industrial Average, it was removed from the index in 2018.

GE refashioned itself in recent years from the sprawling conglomerate created by Jack Welch in the 1980s to a much smaller and focused entity.