GE sells its current lighting division, based in Boston

Like its parent company, General Electric's Current business has changed since it moved to Boston more than two years ago.

Here is the biggest change so far. GE sells Current to a new owner: American Industrial Partners, a private equity firm based in New York. The sale, to be finalized in early 2019, is one of the most tangible impacts of GE's divestments, initiated last year under former CEO John Flannery and continued under new chief Larry Culp.

Hatched GE Current will combine high-tech lighting with certain energy activities such as storage and solar energy. The company chose Boston largely because of its culture of innovation several months before its decision, and took over former GE Lighting director Maryrose Sylvester.

Current opened in a WeWork space near South Station in early 2016, just as Boston won the GE Head Office Contest. (Unlike the relocation of Connecticut's parent company, Current has not received any public subsidy.) A few dozen people worked there fairly quickly. The long-term plan included the establishment of up to 200 local employees, a team that would eventually cross the Fort Point Canal to join their colleagues in the company.

So much for this plan. Currently, they will no longer be part of GE's new headquarters. Under pressure to resurrect GE's stock market, Flannery decided to divest the division and several others, including the well-known consumer lighting group, whose roots go back to Thomas Edison.

GE has not revealed any selling price for Current.

In the meantime, no buyer has yet been identified for the North American consumer lighting operation.

The clean tech sector celebrated the announcement of the arrival of Current in 2016, perhaps more than the head office. Perhaps it is the renowned anchor that the local industry needed, or at least desired. But GE will later separate Current's energy activities from lighting. Today, Current manufactures and sells commercial and industrial lighting systems, as well as sensors and associated software. It employs approximately 50 people at its Boston office, covering approximately 2,500 people, and plans to continue using the GE brand after the sale.

No major spokesmen are expected, said a spokesman, and the Boston crew remains intact under Sylvester's direction. But the current jobs were to help fill the new headquarters, and the split is another reason why GE might not need the full campus it once envisioned on the south side of Boston. (GE currently employs approximately 235 people at its temporary headquarters in Fort Point and plans to move into a nearby brick building next year.)

The announcement of the sale of Current adds of course to another competition between headquarters: the quest for Amazon HQ2. The latest reports suggest that two winners could be tied for the award: the leader, Arlington, Virginia, and Queens, N, a black horse. It would be an end that almost no one could expect.

And that goes often with economic development. Leaders and politicians focused on a particular vision of the company. But the business climate in which they operate can change quickly, often requiring a different outcome.

Jon Chesto can be contacted at [email protected].