Brooke Sutherland, Columnist

GE Offers Lessons as United Tech Goes Digital

A software acquisition highlights a shift to a more centralized approach. That can be problematic if done poorly.

August 21, 2018 at 4:53 PM UTC

Brooke Sutherland is Bloomberg News' Boston bureau chief and writes the Industrial Strength Newsletter. She was previously a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering deals and industrial companies and an M&A reporter for Bloomberg News.

Dream, but don’t dream too big. — Dream, but don’t dream too big.
Photographer: Lino Mirgeler/picture alliance via Getty Images

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United Technologies Corp. “does not have a digital strategy,” said CEO Greg Hayes in 2016. Times change: On Tuesday, the industrial conglomerate announced an acquisition that “reinforces United Technologies’ global digital strategy.”

It’s buying Predikto, which makes predictive-analytics software that can help companies better understand what causes machinery breakdowns and prevent them. United Technologies didn’t disclose the price, which suggests this isn’t a large outlay — but strategically, the implications are significant.