General Motors to spin off EDS group
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.ELECTRONIC Data Systems, the big computer services group courted by BT last year, is to be spun off by its parent, General Motors, and possibly merged with Sprint, the US telecoms group.
GM and Sprint confirmed yesterday that they were in talks about some form of strategic alliance involving EDS, which the car maker acquired from the Texas enterpreneur Ross Perot for dollars 2.5bn a decade ago.
A combination of the two companies would create a formidable player in the evolving information industry, with the power to deliver EDS's data-processing capability to corporate customers across the US and around the world.
The new partnership, with annual revenues of dollars 20bn, would be an instant rival to AT&T, the US telecoms and computing giant, and to the three-way alliance involving BT, the US long-distance carrier MCI and Nextel, the mobile communications group it bought into earlier this year.
But a merger or even an alliance involving an exchange of shares will require that GM first spins off EDS - now worth about dollars 15bn - as an independent company, an obstacle that pre-empted BT's plan to take a 25 per cent stake in EDS.
GM took the first step last week by turning over its claim on EDS profits - worth about dollars 6bn - to the car maker's badly underfunded pension plan.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments