GE Current Has Been Renamed

Goodbye "Current, powered by GE," hello "GE Current, a Daintree company."

According to foreign media reports, AIP, a New York-based private equity firm that acquired GE's Current earlier this year, has quietly changed the company's name. This change occurred over the past few weeks, with AIP renaming it "GE Current, a Daintree company."

In 2016, GE acquired Daintree Networks, a digital control company for lighting and building automation. The Daintree team — more than 60 engineers based in Melbourne, California, and Massachusetts — was integrated into GE's newly established innovation business unit, Current. However, the roles now seem to have reversed, with Daintree gradually taking the dominant position.

When Current was sold, under the licensing agreement, Current may continue to use the GE brand. The continued use of GE is not surprising, as AIP clearly believes that the GE brand still has significant influence.

Daintree is undoubtedly at the core of two main current tasks: digitally connected lighting and other building-related operations, to make them run more efficiently and extract data from them. The driving forces of the Internet of Things (IoT) include sensors and other chips, as well as cloud database connectivity and analytics, all of which align well with Daintree's requirements.

In addition to the Daintree-led digital business, Current has recently made it clear that it is actively deploying a more traditional fixture and LED lighting business, which in turn is expected to drive the digital business.

The IoT lighting in the San Diego smart city project now comes from Daintree's GE Current, rather than from Current supported by GE.

AIP does not appear to have issued a press release about the new name, which appeared in a press release issued by GE Current two weeks ago regarding a partnership with commercial signage lighting supplier Principal Lighting Group.

The relevant content in Current's mission statement is as follows: 'GE Current, a Daintree company, is a company that integrates the design, procurement and assembly of lamps and lighting fixtures, focused on new retrofit applications through complementary digital sensors and software.'

Another thing AIP has not announced is that on its webpage about Current it describes that its revenue decreased by 6.3%. AIP's revenue is currently listed at $880 million, while in June last year, or even later, its revenue was $940 million.

GE created Current in October 2015 and touted it as a 'billion-dollar startup,' combining lighting with many other commercial energy-consuming operations to provide great advantages and efficiencies. The company then scaled back Current's business until selling it to AIP in April, during which time GE also conducted many sales of operations and other companies.

Current's former CEO Maryrose Sylvester left the company in June to join Swiss power and energy giant ABB, at which time AIP appointed AIP partner Randall Swift as interim CEO.