divestiture

American  

[dih-ves-ti-cher, -choor, dahy-] / dɪˈvɛs tɪ tʃər, -ˌtʃʊər, daɪ- /

Also divestment

noun

1. the act of divesting.

2. the state of being divested.

3. something, as property or investments, that has been divested.

   to reexamine the company's acquisitions and divestitures.

4. Also divesture the sale of business holdings or part of a company, especially under legal compulsion.

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divestiture Cultural  

1. The act of a corporation or conglomerate in getting rid of a subsidiary company or division. In a tactic to pressure South Africa to end apartheid, during the 1980s many Americans and Europeans urged divestiture on corporations doing business in South Africa.

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Etymology

Origin of divestiture

First recorded in 1595–1605; di- ² + (in)vestiture

Explanation

Divestiture is the act of getting rid of something. In business, companies sometimes use divestiture to scale down and save money, by selling off assets. If a corporation owns smaller companies that make snack food, clothing, and roller skates, it may decide it's time to save some money through divestiture. Unfortunately, that probably means selling off the roller skate company. To sell or otherwise rid yourself of something is to divest, which comes from a French word meaning "strip of possessions" or "strip of clothing," and the Latin root vestire, "to clothe."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

divestiture

General Mills also had a $1 billion non-cash valuation loss related to the planned divestiture of its Brazil business.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 1, 2026

While a divestiture could hurt earnings initially, it would allow management to focus on its faster-growing businesses, which could drive up Yum’s stock valuation.

From Barron's ● Jun. 10, 2026

“A forced divestiture of Ticketmaster remains very unlikely,” Supino wrote last month.

From Barron's ● May 5, 2026

The decrease was driven by the company’s divestiture of Medicare and related businesses last March, it said.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 30, 2026

Let the enfranchisement be made a tentative thing; and let there be a provision for the divestiture of the Indian of the right, in case disaster to him should supervene upon its application.

From A Treatise on the Six-Nation Indians by Mackenzie, J. B. (James Bovell)

Related Words

• disinvestment
• divestment