Divestiture

A dee-vest-ti-tchooor, as we’d say if this word was French, (it’s actually like “divest-i-ture”) is when an organization (including companies and governments) axes a division (or department, or whatever you wanna call it). TLDR: it’s when an org cuts off a limb. Hopefully for the best though, so no worries.

The only constant is change, right? Divestiture might happen when there’s some internal organization to make operations better fit a company’s goal, or maybe when that “limb” is no longer raking in the big bucks (profits). Divestiture can also happen when two companies become one, merging. This could be because it doesn’t make sense to have two accounting departments, or because the government says “you guys aren’t allowed to have two heads” for consumer protection reasons (avoiding monopolies).

But, like we said, companies aren’t the only ones doing the divestiture dance. Governments might cut the fat when they realize private companies are doing a better job than them at some things. This really only applies though when a government has some state-owned companies, like socialist governments. Still, this could happen in the U.S., say if firefighter services or public schools were shut down and “divested” in favor of private firefighters and private schools only.

Related or Semi-related Video

Finance: What is Disinvestment?3 Views

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finance a la shmoop what is disinvestment? all right you got a couple

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of choices disinvestment dat-investment and but disinvestment refers to the [Man walks through door]

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process of a well a kind of whiny financial boycott like you think it

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comes out of Yale or something it's a common thing among university students [Boy studying in library]

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who are high on intellectual horsepower and low on self-awareness or how the

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world actually works like the little rich kid who complains to Daddy about

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the underpaid workers in his shirt factory as the kid drives away that [Boy driving sports car]

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shiny new convertible BMW with the you know souped-up stereo set yeah that's

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kind of what it's like well students often protest universities investing in

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things like tobacco and oil and types of technology companies and that's really

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kind of funny and sad because you know students late teenagers really have tons

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of professional investment experience and life experiences and they've seen

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lots of market cycles and they really know what they're doing when it comes to

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the long cycles of the stock market and or they're advised by professors who [Woman working on laptop]

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really have risked their own capital to build a big oh wait there none of that

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so yeah that's the funny part and the sad part is that well for better or

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worse over time those industries that they want to boycott for their school's

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endowment which then pays for scholarships for underprivileged kids

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have traditionally been really good industries to invest in like they've had

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good investment returns yeah like technology come on give me a break just

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goes up right so when the students push the university to sell its point zero

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zero zero one percent ownership of their stake in whatever company well then the

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university loses those good investment gains and that endowment money that was [Money vanishes from vault]

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supposed to be earmarked for scholarships for the underprivileged not

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the children of rich daddies in you know BMWs while that money just isn't there

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just goes away so who did all that disinvestment hurt well students five

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ten twenty years later who actually needed the scholarship money and didn't

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get it but at least the boycott really affected how Chevron drilled for oil there

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right [Chevron drills hole into sea bed]

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