Home > NewsRoom > News

LONDON (Reuters) - U.S. conglomerate General Electric Co. (NYSE:GE - News) is close to an agreement to buy the aerospace division of Britain's Smiths Group (London:SMIN.L - News) for about 2.5 billion pounds ($4.9 billion), the Wall Street Journal said on Monday. The newspaper quoted people close to the matter as saying that the deal was expected to be announced as soon as Monday morning. The deal would mark a change of strategy for the British company and a return for GE to expanding in Europe, it said. Officials from Smiths were not immediately available for comment. The British company has four divisions involved in the aerospace, detection, medical and specialty engineering sectors. It employs 32,000 people at more than 250 facilities in 50 countries.