Disinvestment is the process of taking your money out of a company by selling the shares you hold in it. You once had a piece of that company; you sell that piece, and both the money and the ownership leave. A person can do this quietly. A big fund or a government can do it loudly, and the news will use this word. Though actually, people also use it for pulling money out of a whole country, industry, or kind of business, not only one firm. You will hear disinvestment from oil companies, or, in older politics, disinvestment from a country — meaning many investors sell on purpose, often to make a point. It is a formal, financial word. In ordinary speech you would say selling off the shares, or pulling the money out. It is not the same as a company going broke: the company may still be there; you have just taken your money home. Some writers prefer divestment for the public-campaign sense; many news stories treat the two as the same.