Is Siemens setting its healthcare business free to do its own thing or isn’t it?

On Nov. 6, European Medical Device Technology reported on its “Daily Buzz” page that the German conglomerate’s CEO, Joe Kaeser, was moving ahead with a plan he announced last May to spin off Siemens Healthcare as its own legal unit (while also selling its hearing aid business outright).

“As a separately managed business, healthcare will be better able to respond more efficiently to trends and to the expected paradigm shifts in the industry,” EMDT quoted Kaeser as having said. “Siemens hopes that, as a separate entity, the [$17 billion] healthcare unit will find it easier to make the necessary investments to boost its competitiveness.”

That seemed clear enough, and multiple news outlets picked up the story and ran with it.

Four days later, however, London-based HealthInvestor reported that Siemens had decided to keep its healthcare division “as part of its long-term, strategic core portfolio.”

Citing the German magazine Der Spiegel as its source, HealthInvestor said “an online newsletter from trade union IG Metall said that Siemens had ruled out redundancies in its healthcare department. Instead, it agreed to retain the number of healthcare employers or to expand its job base. The healthcare headquarters will also remain in Germany.”

Setting aside the ambiguity of the term “ruled out,” possibly a translation problem, the rest of the news seemed to suggest a change of mind at Siemens.

Seeking clarity amid the confusion, RadiologyBusiness.com contacted Jeff Bell, senior communications manager for Siemens’s imaging systems division in the U.S., via email.

“As a matter of policy,” Bell responded, “Siemens does not comment on rumors and speculation.”

The chatter came a few weeks after Philips announced the separation of its healthcare and lighting businesses, and less than a month after GE head Jeffrey Immelt said that healthcare remains a core part of the GE portfolio.