Recent News: Plant Closing, Economy, Earnings, GE Money, Ecomagination, GE Healthcare, and Biffa

GE plans to close Bloomington plant

General Electric said Thursday it plans to close its Bloomington refrigeration plant by the fourth quarter of 2009 due to losses of about $45 million last year and an expectation of similar losses this year...

GE brings market to life

A $600 or $800 check from the government won't pay for a jet engine or a power plant. But to the extent that GE is seen as a proxy for the broader economy, efforts to revive consumer confidence can only be beneficial to the company...

U.S. Stocks Decline, Led by Financial Shares; Sprint Tumbles
U.S. stocks fell, sending the Standard & Poor's 500 Index to its biggest weekly loss in five years, on concern President George W. Bush's $150 billion plan to revive the economy will fail to prevent a recession...

Local GE unit's 2007 profit rises 7 percent
General Electric Co. fourth-quarter net income rose to $6.7 billion, or 66 cents per share, from $6.4 billion, or 62 cents per share, a year ago...

GE Money Backup Tape With 650,000 Records Missing At Iron Mountain
Really, companies -- and Iron Mountain -- could do better. Iron Mountain can't find a backup tape belonging to GE Money that contains the personal information of some 650,000 customers of J.C. Penney and about 100 other retailers. GE Money handles credit card processing for the affected retailers...

GE to light up Land Tejas development
Land Tejas Cos., developer of Houston's Canyon Gate Communities, and General Electric have finalized an agreement to build Houston's first master-planned community to incorporate GE's ecomagination program...


Earnings roundup: Johnson Controls, GE
General Electric Co. delivered some cheer Friday to investors worried about a slowing economy, saying its quarterly profit rose 4 percent and reaffirming its outlook for 2008...

DJIA Leaders & Laggards: VZ GE
On the rising side, shares of conglomerate General Electric Co. rose $1.10, or 3.3 percent, to $34.31, after GE reported a 4 percent higher fourth-quarter profit...

Upbeat GE seeks targets in credit squeeze
General Electric yesterday sought to position itself as a safe haven in troubled times, saying that its global operations, low-cost base and strong credit rating would help it weather the credit squeeze and a weakening US economy...

GE studying bid for Spain's Colonial - report
U.S. conglomerate General Electric is studying a possible offer for troubled Spanish real estate firm Colonial newspaper Expansion reported on Saturday, quoting sources close to the deal...

GE Healthcare profits down 4 percent
Profits for General Electric Co.'s GE Healthcare division declined 4 percent in the fourth quarter because of ongoing production issues with a Utah subsidiary and a new federal law that GE says is continuing to put pressure on the medical imaging industry...

GE seeks to bag Biffa with £1.5bn offer
An Investment group backed by General Electric, one of the world's largest companies, has made a counter-approach worth about £1.5bn for Biffa, the British waste collection group...