Solventum Corporation is an American health care company that was spun off from 3M on April 1, 2024.

History

Spin-off

On July 26, 2022, 3M announced that it would spin off its healthcare division as a separate company to streamline operations. The new company would assume 3M's business in wound and oral care,

health informatics Health informatics combines communications, information technology (IT), and health care to enhance patient care and is at the forefront of the medical technological revolution. It can be viewed as a branch of engineering and applied science. ...

, and biopharmaceutical filtration. The sales of products in these fields accounted for about a quarter of 3M's total sales in 2021. CEO Mike Roman said that the split would "position 3M for the future, to create more opportunity and greater certainty". ''

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'' said that the move followed a period of declining profits attributed to shifting economic trends, and would "dramatically reshape a company known for diverse product lines, from electronic components to dental adhesives to

Post-it note A Post-it note (or sticky note) is a small piece of paper with a re-adherable strip of glue on its back, made for temporarily attaching notes to documents and other surfaces. A low-adhesion, tack pressure-sensitive adhesive allows the notes to ...

s". In fact, the announcement of the spin-off occurred the same day as a separate announcement that a 3M subsidiary, Aearo Technologies, had declared

Chapter 11 bankruptcy Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code ( Title 11 of the United States Code) permits reorganization under the bankruptcy laws of the United States. Such reorganization, known as Chapter 11 bankruptcy, is available to every business, w ...

after settling lawsuits alleging that the earplugs it had manufactured for U.S. military service members were defective and damaged their hearing. Many observers placed this business decision in a larger trend of other industrial conglomerates that had undergone similar splits in the preceding few years. In November 2021,

General Electric General Electric Company (GE) was an American Multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate founded in 1892, incorporated in the New York (state), state of New York and headquartered in Boston. Over the year ...

announced that it would spin off its health care, aerospace, and energy businesses as GE HealthCare,

GE Aerospace General Electric Company, doing business as GE Aerospace, is an American aircraft engine supplier that is headquartered in Evendale, Ohio, outside Cincinnati. It is the legal successor to the original General Electric Company founded in 1892, w ...

, and

GE Vernova GE Vernova, Inc., is an energy equipment manufacturing and services company headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts. GE Vernova was formed from the merger and subsequent spin-off of General Electric's energy businesses in 2024: GE Power, GE ...

, respectively; the same week,

Johnson & Johnson Johnson & Johnson (J&J) is an American multinational pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and medical technologies corporation headquartered in New Brunswick, New Jersey, and publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange. Its common stock is a c ...

announced that it would spin off its consumer health division as a separate company,

Kenvue Kenvue Inc. is an American consumer health company. Formerly the Consumer Healthcare division of Johnson & Johnson, Kenvue is the proprietor of well-known brands such as Aveeno, Band-Aid, Benadryl, Combantrin, Zyrtec, Johnson's, Listerin ...

. Comparisons were also made to the decisions by

Kellogg's Kellanova, formerly known as the Kellogg Company and commonly known as Kellogg's, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational food manufacturing company headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, US. Kellanova produces and markets con ...

and

Toshiba is a Japanese multinational electronics company headquartered in Minato, Tokyo. Its diversified products and services include power, industrial and social infrastructure systems, elevators and escalators, electronic components, semiconductors ...

to split into multiple entities, as well as

United Technologies United Technologies Corporation (UTC) was an American multinational corporation, multinational list of conglomerates, conglomerate headquartered in Farmington, Connecticut. It researched, developed, and manufactured products in numerous are ...

's spin-off of

Otis Worldwide Otis Worldwide Corporation ( branded as the Otis Elevator Company, its former legal name) styled as OTIS is an American company that develops, manufactures and markets elevators, escalators, moving walkways, and related equipment. Based in ...

and

Carrier Global Carrier Global Corporation is an American multinational heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC), refrigeration, and fire and security equipment corporation based in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. Carrier was founded in 1915 as an in ...

before its merger with

Raytheon Raytheon is a business unit of RTX Corporation and is a major U.S. defense contractor and industrial corporation with manufacturing concentrations in weapons and military and commercial electronics. Founded in 1922, it merged in 2020 with Unite ...

. 3M itself sold its food safety business to

Neogen Neogen Corporation is an international food safety company that provides test kits and relevant products to detect dangerous substances in food. The company was founded in 1982 and is based in Lansing, Michigan. The company serves a wide range of ...

in September 2022. On January 24, 2023, the health care business was registered as a corporation in

Delaware Delaware ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic and South Atlantic states, South Atlantic regions of the United States. It borders Maryland to its south and west, Pennsylvania to its north, New Jersey ...

under the provisional name "3M Health Care Co.". On November 16, 2023, 3M unveiled that the new company would be called Solventum, a

portmanteau In linguistics, a blend—also known as a blend word, lexical blend, or portmanteau—is a word formed by combining the meanings, and parts of the sounds, of two or more words together.

of the words " solving" and "

momentum In Newtonian mechanics, momentum (: momenta or momentums; more specifically linear momentum or translational momentum) is the product of the mass and velocity of an object. It is a vector quantity, possessing a magnitude and a direction. ...

". The spin-off was completed on April 1, 2024, with 3M retaining about 19.9% of Solventum. On February 25, 2025, it was announced that Thermo Fisher Scientific would acquire the company's Purification & Filtration business unit for $4.1B.

Independent operation

The first CEO of Solventum is Bryan Hanson, who has served in the role since September 1, 2023.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Solventum 3M American companies established in 2023 Companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange Corporate spin-offs Health care companies based in Minnesota Manufacturing companies based in Minnesota Personal care companies of the United States Ramsey County, Minnesota American companies established in 2024