Cable television infrastructure giant General Instrument Inc is no more. The Chicago-based company officially ceased trading on Monday and split itself into three separate public companies, trading on the New York Stock Exchange. The largest of the new firms is NextLevel Systems Inc, a former General Instrument division with 8,300 staff and revenues of $1.8bn, concentrating on broadband networking, satellite data networks and fiber-to- the-kerb telephony. Then comes the $580m CommScope Inc, billed as the world’s largest manufacturer of coaxial cable, a former subsidiary, and the $360m General Semiconductor Inc, supplying discrete power rectifying components. The changes were first mooted back in January (CI No 3,073) but had to await approval from the US Government and company shareholders. General Instrument had sold off several other areas of the company and decided at the beginning of the year that it was time to split up. Tom Dumit, new vice president of NextLevel Systems, said the decision was made to benefit shareholders, as the Stock Exchange prefers pure play companies. There should be no job losses, and the separate companies will have no legal connections. Commenting on General Instrument’s split, Dumit said: We expect the future to be very bright. We think each of the companies has a substantial opportunity to grow in its respective business.
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