General Electric Co announced on Wednesday it will move its headquarters to Boston, leaving the sprawling suburban Connecticut campus it has called home over the past four decades for a technology-rich city it says better fits its ambitions as an innovation leader.

Chairman and CEO Jeff Immelt said GE, one of the best-known companies in corporate America, wanted to be "at the center of an ecosystem that shares our aspirations".

The announcement comes three years after the $130 billion high-tech global industrial company said it began considering a new composition and location for its head-quarters, and more than seven months after the firm threatened to leave Connecticut, complaining about the state's tax environment.