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

The divestiture is expected to be accretive of adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization beginning in the next fiscal year, the company said.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 20, 2026

Most of Verizon’s layoffs would come from the retail-store divestiture.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 16, 2026

GlobalFoundries was formed through the divestiture of Advanced Micro Devices manufacturing arm in 2009.

From Barron's ● May 4, 2026

A potential merger would trigger “major antitrust, divestiture, alliance, execution, and valuation risks,” he added.

From Barron's ● Apr. 14, 2026

This divestiture of sensation proceeds to such an extent that there is nothing left beyond what M. Villey calls the pure form.

From Essays Towards a Theory of Knowledge by Philip, Alexander

Related Words

• disinvestment
• divestment