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NFT: General Electric Kicked Off the Dow

Bob in Vt : 6/20/2018 11:46 am
The end of an era.

Tried posting a link, but I could not get it to work.
Here you go  
jcn56 : 6/20/2018 11:51 am : link
I wonder what did them in more - was it general mismanagement, or was turning it into a lender and loading up GE Capital with a ton of crap something they just couldn't ever get over?
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/ge-stock-gets-booted-dow-100500521.html - ( New Window )
I used to help sell those gas turbines when I worked  
ATL_Giants : 6/20/2018 12:07 pm : link
for GE. I've toured through the plant in Greenville, SC with those gas turbines being built.
I get dropping GE  
Csonka : 6/20/2018 12:14 pm : link
I don't get replacing them with a retailer like Walgreens.
What Csonka said.  
Red Dog : 6/20/2018 12:25 pm : link
It's a sad day for America when a pioneering manufacturer like GE who has contributed so much to our national progress and way of life is dropped from the Dow in favor of just another retailer who may not even be around a decade from now.
This is like taking away  
pjcas18 : 6/20/2018 12:38 pm : link
the Duke brothers seat on the exchange.

I started my career with GE during the Jack Welch days, it was a really incredible place to get my start and I still think back to a lot of the lessons I learned 20 years ago.

I worked in GE Capital.

Reality is though they deserve to be booted off the Dow.
GE is on my do not buy list  
RinR : 6/20/2018 12:40 pm : link
for selling me a dishwasher that crapped out after 4 years.
RE: I get dropping GE  
Jim in Fairfax : 6/20/2018 12:44 pm : link
In comment 13995257 Csonka said:
Quote:
I don't get replacing them with a retailer like Walgreens.

Walgreens is the 19th largest company in the US.
GE  
AcidTest : 6/20/2018 12:45 pm : link
has a lot of problems. Their stock has been a disaster, even as the rest of the market has had tremendous gains in the last seven or so years. They expanded into areas like finance that they should have avoided. Management was awful. They are now selling assets, and cut the dividend. It's going to be a long road back, and my guess is they won't show much life until 2020. But GE is an internationally recognized name, they still have core assets that are valuable, and there is new management.
GE has some nice products  
DennyInDenville : 6/20/2018 12:58 pm : link
We will see how long they last but I currently am using a GE washer and a a GE air conditioner and both work at ELITE levels.. HOWEVER , Both are still under 5 years old

The Panasonic AC that this GE replaced ran over 20 years and only reason it was replaced with the GE is because it fell out the window and became a safety issue because it was so damn heavy compared to the newer ACs, and the Panasonic still worked after it fell out the window, I ended up giving it to a friend
I think the complaints about replacing it with Walgreens  
jcn56 : 6/20/2018 1:00 pm : link
are misplaced. It's not that Walgreens is going in, it's that people still think of it as the Dow Industrial Average.

Otherwise, when you look at the rest of the Dow 30, it's hard to complain about Walgreens being there.
So the question I have - and it's a question, not a statement  
jcn56 : 6/20/2018 1:02 pm : link
is was Welch as good a CEO as they make him out to be - or did some of his moves cash in for short term profits and leave the company in bad shape in the longer term, after he left?

Look at the banks - who had been profitable forever and run competently when they were partnerships, only to go public, go on a run of acquisitions means to make things look fantastic in the short term, only to have moves blow up spectacularly 5 years down the road. Did the same happen to GE?
Jack Welch  
Hammer : 6/20/2018 4:19 pm : link
For god and country, Welch said this

“Several years ago Jack Welch, former CEO of General Electric, captured the new reality when he talked of ideally having "every plant you own on a barge." The economic logic was that factories should float between countries to take advantage of lowest costs, be they due to under-valued exchange rates, low taxes, subsidies, or a surfeit of cheap labor.”

I know I’ll take heat for this, but I really don’t give a shit.

Fuck him.
RE: So the question I have - and it's a question, not a statement  
njm : 6/20/2018 4:33 pm : link
In comment 13995312 jcn56 said:
Quote:
is was Welch as good a CEO as they make him out to be - or did some of his moves cash in for short term profits and leave the company in bad shape in the longer term, after he left?

Look at the banks - who had been profitable forever and run competently when they were partnerships, only to go public, go on a run of acquisitions means to make things look fantastic in the short term, only to have moves blow up spectacularly 5 years down the road. Did the same happen to GE?


IMHO what did GE in was GE Capital, which got decimated in the 2008 meltdown. Welsh "created" it, but retired 7 years before the meltdown. You'd have to look at GE Capital's books on 9/8/2001 to be sure, but while he may bear some responsibility I believe Immelt and the GE Capital managers deserve the lion's share.
RE: RE: So the question I have - and it's a question, not a statement  
jcn56 : 6/20/2018 5:46 pm : link
In comment 13995541 njm said:
Quote:
In comment 13995312 jcn56 said:


Quote:


is was Welch as good a CEO as they make him out to be - or did some of his moves cash in for short term profits and leave the company in bad shape in the longer term, after he left?

Look at the banks - who had been profitable forever and run competently when they were partnerships, only to go public, go on a run of acquisitions means to make things look fantastic in the short term, only to have moves blow up spectacularly 5 years down the road. Did the same happen to GE?



IMHO what did GE in was GE Capital, which got decimated in the 2008 meltdown. Welsh "created" it, but retired 7 years before the meltdown. You'd have to look at GE Capital's books on 9/8/2001 to be sure, but while he may bear some responsibility I believe Immelt and the GE Capital managers deserve the lion's share.


I know that he was out long before the implosion - but if he created the unit, and cultivated the philosophy, wouldn't you expect that it would take a few years before the negative effects would be seen?

Seems like there's a parallel there to the subprime crisis - when they first started selling those products, everyone was dancing around with big piles of money. It took a few years until the SHTF, and then some of those geniuses didn't look quite as bright for lending busboys in California 500k to buy McMansions.
We had GE products when we  
section125 : 6/20/2018 7:15 pm : link
built our house 20 years ago. The refrig is still running out in the garage. THe double oven was garbage constantly failing right around holidays.

Once Immelt moved the gas turbine division to China, I said FU GE.

And yeah, screw Jack Welch.
RE: This is like taking away  
McNally's_Nuts : 6/20/2018 8:19 pm : link
In comment 13995283 pjcas18 said:
Quote:
the Duke brothers seat on the exchange.

I started my career with GE during the Jack Welch days, it was a really incredible place to get my start and I still think back to a lot of the lessons I learned 20 years ago.

I worked in GE Capital.

Reality is though they deserve to be booted off the Dow.



TURN THOSE ENGINES BACK ON!

TURN THOSE ENGINES BACK ON.......
I worked with their insurance Co in handling catastrophe claims  
montanagiant : 6/20/2018 9:55 pm : link
At their sites.
Arrogant bunch of assholes who brought very little to the table for the amount of high maintenance they demanded
Welch was over rated, Immelt just sucked  
trueblueinpw : 6/21/2018 8:36 am : link
I never understood all the adulation for Welch. Yeah, he got everyone to focus on process efficiency but so what? He didn’t invent Six Sigma and cost cutting and process efficacy are table stakes for CEOs. Acquisitions? Sure, but when you have an almost endless pool of capital and credit and you have to grow, is it really brilliant to go on a buying spree or is that the obvious course of action? Getting into the credit game wasn’t a good idea or a long term success.

I’m not going to hang GEs doldrums today entirely on Welch, that just wouldn’t be fair, but I don’t think he was an oganizational genius or even terribly innovative as a manager. But Welch himself said his success would ultimately be judged on the success of GE many years after he was gone. Welch made a huge production out of anointing his successor. And how did his hand picked hand groomed prince perform? Welp...

As it turned out, Immelt was just another business school lackey. If he ever did anything innovative or creative it doesn’t appear to have been while he was at the helm of GE. Frankly, I think guys like Welch and Immelt embody everything that’s wrong with capitalism and business today.
Welch  
pjcas18 : 6/21/2018 8:53 am : link
ran GE for 30 years and the stock increased 4000% in those 30 years.

I think you would need to measure that against other similar conglomerates or even indices to really evaluate Welch. The CEO responsibility is to shareholders.

Welch privately says his biggest regret is naming Immelt his successor. Many people recommended Nardelli (who I think wound up at Home Depot). I actually came to work with the firm who helped Welch evaluate the candidates and they do say he went against the analytics with Immelt and named him based on his own feelings.

On the rare occasions I had to be in Welch's presence I found him to be a very inspirational leader (I was a recent college grad too so I was very impressionable).

Anyway, the GE Capital expansion did not do in GE IMO. It was a deviation from the "nuclear Jack" methods of cost cutting and not just acquiring companies but divesting them too. (If you're not #1 or #2 we don't want you). During my 5 years at GE there were divestitures, layoffs, acquisitions, etc. seemingly every day.

GE Capital being able to finance the massive transactions was a very lucrative business, maybe you can question expanding it to a almost hedge fund like unit, but I don't think GE Capital was the coup de grace and I don't believe Welch founded it either - just expanded it.

One thing I will say for Immelt (who I was not an employee while he was CEO) is he took over literally days before 9/11. Tough omen.
RE: RE: RE: So the question I have - and it's a question, not a statement  
njm : 6/21/2018 9:00 am : link
In comment 13995585 jcn56 said:
Quote:


I know that he was out long before the implosion - but if he created the unit, and cultivated the philosophy, wouldn't you expect that it would take a few years before the negative effects would be seen?


1 or 2 years, yes. But 7? That falls for the most part on someone else.
RE: RE: RE: RE: So the question I have - and it's a question, not a statement  
jcn56 : 6/21/2018 9:02 am : link
In comment 13995955 njm said:
Quote:
In comment 13995585 jcn56 said:


Quote:




I know that he was out long before the implosion - but if he created the unit, and cultivated the philosophy, wouldn't you expect that it would take a few years before the negative effects would be seen?




1 or 2 years, yes. But 7? That falls for the most part on someone else.


In an organization of that size? Somehow that seems unrealistic to me. If that were the case, then the CEO is the most overrated position in corporate America, since their impact is basically limited to the immediate timeframe.
Moved into my townhouse in 2006.The complex was built in 1999 &  
TheMick7 : 6/21/2018 9:28 am : link
stocked w/all GE appliances. Everything still works (18 years & counting) with the exception of the washer that just conked out on me last month. I've got nothing except praise for GE products based on my personal experience!
GE announces plan to spin-off health-care, divest Baker Hughes stake  
Bobby Humphrey's Earpad : 6/26/2018 8:12 am : link
Quote:
General Electric on Tuesday it plans to spin off its health-care business and divest its stake in oil-services company Baker Hughes, leaving the once-sprawling conglomerate focused on jet engines, power plants and renewable energy.


Don't know what this means for the firm's IOT ambitions, guess they are scrapping that branding already. I never got the rationale for the Baker Hughes deal to begin with, but then again I never worked for McKinsey.
Link - ( New Window )
all goes to CEO  
giantfan2000 : 6/26/2018 9:02 am : link
Immelt had a gift of buying companies at the height of trends for top dollar over and over again he would follow fads and buy companies at their highest worth.

Lastly he spent $93 billion in stock buy backs the past 10 years
the total market cap of GE now is $110 Billion

and for driving GE into the ground .. a 130 year former dow component that is now a shell of it's former self..

Immelt only walks away with $211 million, on top of the salary and bonuses he has accumulated in his more than 35 years there
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