General Electric

The General Electric Company, or GE, is a multinational technology and services company. Going into 2005, it was the world's largest corporation in terms of market cap ([http://screen.yahoo.com/b?mc=100000000/&b=1&z=mc&db=stocks&vw=1]). However, on the back of high oil prices, Exxon-Mobil overtook it in late 2004 and early 2005. As of March 28, 2005, GE had a market cap of approximately United States dollar$379 billion, leading Exxon-Mobil by $2 billion. It should not be confused with The General Electric Company plc, which was renamed Marconi plc in 1999. In the 1960s, peculiarities in U.S. tax laws and accounting practices made it fashionable to assemble Conglomerate (company). GE, which was a conglomerate long before the term was coined, is one of the very few corporations to achieve great success with this kind of organization. ==History== In 1876, Thomas Edison opened a new laboratory in Menlo Park, New Jersey, New Jersey. Out of the laboratory was to come perhaps the most famous invention of all—a successful development of the light bulb. By 1890, Edison had organized his various businesses into the Edison General Electric Company. In 1879, Elihu Thomson and E. J. Houston formed the rival Thomson-Houston Company. It merged with various companies and was later led by Charles A. Coffin, a former shoe manufacturer from Lynn, Massachusetts. Mergers with competitors and the patent rights owned by each company put them into dominant positions in the electrical industry. As businesses expanded, it became increasingly difficult for either company to produce complete electrical installations relying solely on their own technology. In 1892, these two major companies combined to form the General Electric Company, with its headquarters in Schenectady, New York. In 1896, General Electric was one of the Dow Jones Industrial Average#History companies listed on the newly-formed Dow Jones Industrial Average. GE is the only one that remains today. The RCA was founded by GE and American Telephone & Telegraph in 1919 to further international radio. General Electric was one of the eight major computer companies (with IBM - the largest, Burroughs, Scientific Data Systems, Control Data Corporation, Honeywell, RCA and UNIVAC) through most of the 1960s. In 1970 it sold its computer division to Honeywell. In 1986, GE re-acquired RCA, primarily for the NBC television network. The rest was sold to various companies, including Bertelsmann AG and Thomson. In 2004, GE bought from Vivendi Universal the television and movie assets and became the third largest media conglomerate in the world. The new company was named NBC Universal. Also in 2004, GE completed the spinoff of most of its life insurance and mortgage insurance assets into an independent company, Genworth Financial, based in Richmond, Virginia. In that same year, GE also acquired the credit card unit of the department store Dillard's for $1.25 billion. In 2005, General Electric bought the financial assets of the Canadian airplane manufacturer Bombardier for $1.4 billion [http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000082&sid=aeIc.zt1tBbc] ==Today== GE is an enormous multinational corporation headquartered in Fairfield, Connecticut. GE describes itself as composed of a number of primary business units or "businesses." Each "business" is itself a vast enterprise, any of which would, if separate, rank in the Fortune 500 by itself. The list of GE businesses varies over time as the result of acquisitions and reorganizations. ==GE subsidiaries== :''Main article: List of assets owned by General Electric'' * Access Distribution * GE Advanced Materials * GE Capital IT Solutions * GE Capital Rail Services * GE Capital Aviation Services * GE Commercial Finance * GE Consumer & Industrial * GE Consumer Finance * GE Energy * GE Engine Services, Inc. * GE Equipment Services * GE Fanuc Automation North America, Inc. * GE Financial Assurance Holdings, Inc. * GE Franchise Finance Corporation * GE Global Research * GE Healthcare * GE Infrastructure * GE Insurance * GE Money * GE Osmonics * GE SeaCo SRL * GE Security * GE Small Business Finance Corporation * GE Supply * GE Transportation * General Electric Mortgage Insurance Corporation * Global Nuclear Fuel - Japan Co., Ltd. * HPSC, Inc. * Instrumentarium * MRA Systems, Inc. * NBC Universal * Transport International Pool Inc. * WMC Mortgage Corp. Through these businesses, GE participates in a wide variety of markets including the generation, transmission and distribution of electricity, lighting, industrial automation, medical_imaging, motor, railway locomotive, aircraft jet_engine, aviation and materials such as plastic, silicone and abrasives. It was co-founder and is 80% owner (with Vivendi Universal) of National Broadcasting Company, the National Broadcasting Company. As GE Commercial Finance, GE Consumer Finance, GE Equipment Services, and GE Insurance it offers a range of financial services as well. It has a presence in over 100 countries. Interestingly, over half of GE's revenue is derived from financial services, ostensibly making it a financial company with a manufacturing arm. It is also one of the largest lenders in countries other than the United States, such as Japan. Even though the first wave of conglomerates (such as ITT, Ling-Temco-Vought, Tenneco, etc) fell by the wayside by the mid-1980s, in the late 1990s, another wave (consisting of Westinghouse Electric Corporation, Tyco International, and others) tried and failed to emulate GE's success. ==Jack Welch== The CEO from 1981-2001 was Jack Welch, who many regard as one of the premier business managers of his era. Nicknamed "Neutron Jack", he presided over a 28-fold increase in earnings (on a 5-fold increase in revenue) with his policy (referred to by detractors as "rank and yank") of sacking the worst performing 10% of his staff every year. In running GE's many diverse businesses he maintained a policy of only keeping those businesses which were #1 or #2 within their respective industries. In 1987, GE was the United States' second largest nuclear power company and third largest producer of nuclear weapons systems. Jack Welch introduced the use of the six sigma quality system, originally developed at Motorola, within GE. ==Comments== * The company's market capitalization ([http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=GE]) is almost $100 billion higher than that of Microsoft ([http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=msft]). * In 2004 GE was named number one company for employers and employees on the Forbes 500 Global Player list. ==Management== Job: name, age, pay *CEO: Jeff Immelt, 48, $7.66M *CFO: Keith S. Sherin, 45 *CIO: Gary M. Reiner *Vice Chairman: Dennis Dammerman, 58, $11.49M *Vice Chairman: Robert Charles Wright, 60, $11.05M ==Conference calls== *January 21, 2005 - Earnings Conference Call (Q4 2004) ([http://www.ge.com/en/company/investor/webcast/webcast_01212005.htm press release and slides]) ([http://video.vdat.com/playfile.asp?brand=VN&file=42474_43784.asf&stream=w&media=a audio]) *Oct 8, 2004 - Earnings Conference Call (Q3 2004) ([http://www.ge.com/en/company/investor/webcast/webcast_10082004.htm press release and slides]) ([http://us.rd.yahoo.com/finance/confcall/streetevents/SIG=13bimgqmg/*http%3a//web.servicebureau.net/conf/meta?i=1112490203&c=2343&m=was&u=/w_ccbn.xsl&date_ticker=10_8_2004_GE audio]) ==Analyst coverage== See [http://finance.yahoo.com/q/sa?s=GE Yahoo! analyst converage] *Germanotta, Jeffrey (William Blair & Company, L.L.C.) *Cornell, Robert (Lehman Brothers) *Parent, Nicole (Credit Suisse First Boston) *Dray, Deane (Goldman Sachs) ==Financials== [http://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-edgar?action=getcompany&CIK=0000040545&owner=exclude SEC filings including 10-k] *Revenue ([http://finance.yahoo.com/q/is?s=GE&annual%2004]): $152.4 billion *Employees ([http://finance.yahoo.com/q/pr?s=GE 2004]): 315,000 ==Related topics== * Borazon * Lexan * List of assets owned by General Electric * MOOSE *Rank and yank ==External links== *[http://www.ge.com/ General Electric's website] ===Data=== *[http://biz.yahoo.com/ic/10/10634.html Yahoo! - General Electric Company Company Profile] Fortune 500 companies General Electric Companies traded on NYSE Companies based in Connecticut

General Electric

most of the current text is blatantly copied from http://www.ge.com/en/company/companyinfo/at_a_glance/history_story.htm - User:Alex.tan 17:22, 29 Jul 2003 (UTC) == schema-root.org == This link looks fishy to me. It was added at the bottom of Boeing as well. -User:N328KF User talk:N328KF 03:45, 2004 Oct 12 (UTC) == Income == "for the past 4 years has had the highest or second-highest income (loosely thought of as profit) of any company in the world." This is not true. - User:Jerryseinfeld 01:50, 17 Dec 2004 (UTC) == Analyst == This is what someone wrote: "Analyst coverage - Minor players in the financial industry do not need to be linked". They make several hundred thousand per year, that may not be much to you, but I want to know who they are. Especially since they're on the calls every time.--User:Jerryseinfeld 04:32, 1 Jan 2005 (UTC) :I didn't delete them. I delinked them. My whole thing was that they're not worth linking to because they're not a prominent entity. It's fine to put their names though. —User:N328KF User talk:N328KF 07:10, 2005 Jan 1 (UTC) ::A "prominent entity"? What are you talking about?--User:Jerryseinfeld 15:50, 1 Jan 2005 (UTC) :::There's a metric...not exactly quantifiable...on whether or not an individual merits a separate article. Many of the bio articles are subjected to it. That's all I'm talking about. —User:N328KF User talk:N328KF 18:43, 2005 Jan 2 (UTC) ==Edison invented the bulb?== In 1876, Thomas Edison opened a new laboratory in Menlo Park, New Jersey, New Jersey. Out of the laboratory was to come perhaps the most famous invention of all—a successful development of the light bulb. This sentence sound very certain. The issue seem controversial to me. Some says he perfected [http://www.ushistory.net/electricity.html] other say he invented. What is the real truth behind the issue. I suggest we improve the article by clearly stating both assertions == Awkward structure == It seems to me that the line "In 1987, GE was the United States' second largest nuclear power company and third largest producer of nuclear weapons systems" does not really belong under the short blurb related to Jack Welch - perhaps it should be included under GE subsidiaries? Also I think the Diversity section, which is composed of one sentance of GE as a good company for working mothers, should be removed because it is so minimal and does not adequately address diversity (working mothers is a small section of a general diverse workplace). Finally, I think that the section about Jack Welch is redundant because the information is/can be included in his Wiki page. He should in the History section, but does not deserve his own section. Any thoughts? User:Tkessler 05:38, Mar 15, 2005 (UTC)

General Electric

Communications companies of the United StatesElectronics companies of the United StatesEnergy companies of the United StatesFinancial services companies of the United StatesInsurance companies of the United States

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