GE and Nuclear Energy in India

GE Hitachi, Westinghouse Could Benefit From India's Shift on Nuclear Energy.
GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy, a partnership between General Electric and Hitachi, and Westinghouse Electric, a Toshiba unit are likely to benefit from the recently approved Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Bill in India.
On Monday, the Indian Parliament approved the compensation bill for nuclear accidents subsequent to tougher provisions on supplier liability. This move would end the two-year nuclear ban on India, whose atomic energy market is estimated between $150 billion and $175 billion.

It would enable U.S. companies to compete and invest almost $100 billion to $150 billion in India's nuclear power industry. Additionally, these companies would compete with European state- run rival companies as India boosts nuclear power generation to increase thirteen-fold by 2030 to spur economic growth.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the Congress government had to rewrite the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Bill to accommodate all concerns and views of opposition parties as it seeks to ensure the passing of the bill before U.S president Barrack Obama visits India in November. The new law might lead to a significant increase in nuclear energy contribution to India's current power supply, which currently accounts for a meager 3%. 

GE Creates Page on Digg

GE, EA, Red Bull Are Digging In
Reasoning that an endless stream of content is required to engage fans, General Electric, Electronic Arts and Red Bull last week launched their own Digg pages, along with banner ads teasing Digg content.

The sites so far are built around common themes. GE's site, for its Ecomagination initiative, features links to green technology stories from Treehugger.com, Scientific American and Grist.org. Electronic Arts' site features stories about gaming from g4tv.com among others. Red Bull's Digg site recycles content from Redbullusa.com, which is mainly videos from action sporting events.
Each marketer will also run ads on Digg's network that tease such highlighted stories. Such content-enriched ads have been around for a while. In January, for instance, Intel ran banners with headlines from the Consumer Electronics Show in an attempt to increase click-through rates.

http://digg.com/ecomagination

GE Aviation Tests New Technology

Test flight signals larger GE, Boeing FAA role
An American Airlines flight last week became the first in the U.S. to land using an approach designed by a private company, which may lead to a larger role for business in crafting routes for the government.
 Flight 1916 from Dallas landed at Bradley International Airport near Hartford, Connecticut, on Thursday, guided by procedures written by General Electric Co.'s Naverus unit. The flight shows companies can speed the redesign of routes, helping carriers save time and fuel, said Brian Will, director of airspace modernization at AMR Corp.'s American.

"We will use this all the time," Will, who flew American's Boeing Co. 737-800 to Connecticut, said of the landing approach in an interview. "It's a benefit to us."

AIG and GE See Increase in Aircraft Leasing

GE, AIG See Air-Leasing Competition Heat Up
Just as established players in the aircraft-leasing business are getting back on their feet, scrappy start-ups are giving them a run for their money.
Given the disparity in size between the biggest and smallest competitors, it may not make much of a difference. The two key industry players, American International Group's (AIG) International Lease Finance Corp. and General Electric's (GE) GE Commercial Aviation Services, dominate the industry, with at least three times as many aircraft as their closest competitors.
The battle is interesting if only for the high-profile players -- as well as the profits involved in each leasing arrangement as demand has started to heat up.
GECAS and ILFC have been at the top of the aircraft-leasing space for a long time, making it difficult for new entrants to build a book of business. The two firms now boast 1,800 and 1,000 aircraft, respectively; the next largest competitors have 100 to 300 aircraft and smaller start-ups might have less than a dozen.

New GE Aviation Plant in Alabama

GE Aviation to open new plant in Alabama
GE Aviation plans establish a facility in Alabama to develop high-tech coatings for military engine components, the company announced Aug. 25 in conjunction with state officials. The exact location is being determined.
The plant is expected to employ from 300 to 400 people later in the decade when production of the F136 engine for the Joint Strike Fighter achieves full production, it said in a news release.
GE and Rolls-Royce are fighting to maintain government funding for development of their alternative engine for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. It would compete for orders with the primary F-35 engine being developed by Pratt & Whitney.

Big Spending on GE Lobbying

General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE) Spent $8.3 Million on Q2 Lobbying
General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE) spent a total of $8.3 million lobbying the federal government during the second quarter, working on a wide range of issues including clean energy legislation and financial reform legislation.The conglomerate company spent more than the $7.2 million that it spent during the second quarter of 2009, as a number of major pieces worked their way through congress. The report came from a disclosure which was filed with the House’s clerk office on July 20th. The company also spent more than the $7.14 million it spent during the first quarter of 2010.

New Energy and Appliance Partnerships for GE

GE Teams with Major Utilities, Builders and Communities to Increase American Home Efficiency by 70%, Save Homeowners $100s/yr. on Energy Bills
A team of technologists from GE's Industrial Solutions, Appliances, Lighting and Research divisions is partnering with major utilities, builders and local communities in the western U.S. to evaluate and develop new strategies that reduce energy usage in new and existing homes by up to 70% or more. With the average U.S. household paying $1,240 per year in electricity costs, this program could save homeowners more than $850 per year on their electricity costs.

Nation's Third Largest Homebuilder Selects GE as Exclusive Appliance Supplier
GE Appliances & Lighting signed a contract to continue its role as the single-source appliance supplier for Lennar Homes, the third largest homebuilder in the country(1). GE was selected for the strength of its brand, homebuyer satisfaction, back room efficiencies, and the scope of its nationwide service and delivery network. In 2009, Lennar Homes built 11,478 homes in 17 states, from California to Massachusetts. GE will provide GE(R), GE Profile(TM), and GE Monogram(R) appliances for all new homes between now and Dec. 31, 2014.

Zacks Analyst Blog Highlights

It appears that the strength of the dollar in recent months due to the Euro crisis is already starting to take its toll on U.S. international competitiveness. It is not just that our trade deficit with Europe is deteriorating, rising to $7.8 billion in June from $6.2 billion in May. Our companies compete directly with European companies in many third-world countries.

For example, General Electric (NYSE: GE - News) and Siemens (NYSE: SI - News) of Germany both make products like MRI machines. If the value of the euro falls 10% against the dollar, then Siemens can easily undercut the price it quotes to a Chinese hospital that is interested in upgrading its medical imaging department, and thus get sales that might have otherwise gone to GE. China is, of course, our largest bilateral trade deficit, and it increased to $26.2 billion from $22.3 billion in May.

Full Article Here

747s with GE Engines Included in FAA Order

US FAA orders fixes in Boeing 747s - WSJ

The U.S. air-safety regulator, last week, moved to require certain engine-related wiring changes to Boeing Co's model, the paper said.According to the agency, the fixes are necessary to avoid potentially dangerous retraction of flaps, or panels that deploy from the wings to provide extra lift during takeoffs.FAA said that the retracting flaps during critical early phases of flight could result in reduced climb performance and consequent collision with terrain and obstacles, the paper said.The regulators directive will cover nearly 100 Boeing 747s flown by U.S. carriers and equipped with engines manufactured by both General Electric Co. and the Pratt & Whitney unit of United Technologies Corp, the business daily said.

GE to Benefit from Credit Card Boom

Store-Brand Credit Cards Boom

The private-label corner of the U.S. credit-card market is enjoying a resurgence as fewer Americans fall behind on their payments.Like the broader credit-card industry, delinquencies on store-brand or private-label cards are slowing. That is good news for retailers such as Target Corp. and Nordstrom Inc. and issuers like Citigroup Inc. and General Electric Co. with hefty holdings of store-brand cards.Such specialized retail credit cards differ from so-called general-purpose cards used at multiple-location stores. Store-brand cards are considered riskier because those bills often rank lower in the payment hierarchy of customers in financial distress. A chunk of the customer base for these cards is made up of low-income households and less credit-worthy borrowers. As a result, these cards typically carry higher interest rates and lower credit lines than general-purpose cards.

GE's Latest Healthcare Partnership

Immunomedics collaborates with GE Healthcare

Biopharmaceutical company Immunomedics Inc. said Wednesday it will work with GE Healthcare to evaluate an imaging agent that could be used in identifying cancers.
Immunomedics and GE Healthcare will collaborate to evaluate Immunomedics' method of attaching peptides to an imaging agent called F-18. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed, but Immunomedics said the General Electric Co. unit will cover all costs related to the collaboration.

Ecomagination is Alive and Well

GE pushes Eco 2.0 innovation and collaboration
General Electric announced a renewed commitment to its five-year-old Ecomagination initiative, including $10 billion investment, a new campaign, and PR support.
The GE Ecomagination Challenge: Powering the Grid launched July 13 and runs for 10 weeks, promoting more engagement between GE and entrepreneurs.
"The Challenge exemplifies this open innovation and collaborative approach GE is taking with its big initiatives, particularly around SmartGrid for this one," said Leigh Farris, manager of corporate communications for GE.
Entrepreneurs, technology experts, and start-up companies can submit their ideas for building the next generation power grid, with the winning ideas announced in October. Since its launch, GE has received more than 750 ideas for the Challenge.

Recent GE Acquisition and Partnerships

G.E. and Intel Form Health Venture
General Electric and Intel said on Monday that they had formed a joint venture to create products for patients with chronic diseases and for elderly people at home or in assisted living.
The 50-50 venture is part of a collaboration begun last year, the companies said in a statement that did not elaborate on the terms. G.E. will contribute its home health unit’s assets and Intel will contribute its digital health group’s assets, the companies said.

GE acquires ECS from SNC-Lavalin
General Electric Co. bought Montreal-based SNC-Lavalin's Energy Control Systems business and its network management and control software for an undisclosed amount.ECS makes software to improve power efficiency and reliability. Its headquarters will remain in Montreal and it will keep its staff.

GE joint venture engine gets joint certification from FAA, Europe
The advanced engine developed by a GE Aviation venture for the Boeing Next Generation 737 aircraft received joint certification from U.S. and European safety agencies.

24/7 Wall St.: 2010 Becomes The Year of the Conglomerates

2010 may be a directionless year for the stock markets so far, but shares of conglomerates are outperforming and more upside is expected. The five largest conglomerates we follow are all higher for the year. We took a look at General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE), 3M Co. (NYSE: MMM), Honeywell International Inc. (NYSE: HON), United Technologies Corp. (NYSE: UTX) and Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE: BRK-A) to see which conglomerates were outperforming and why. With a mixed bag between the performance of the SPDRs (NYSE: SPY) and DIAMONDS (NYSE: DIA), the performance so far stands out significantly for all of these large companies.
Conglomerates are supposed to offer safety because of their diversification. That is the theory, and the theory seems to be working so far in 2010. They are also generally good for screens when it comes to value investors and dividend investors. We put together a small table here for comparison of the stocks and the performance. If there are any discrepancies over the “listed” December 31, 2010 versus the papers on official closes, it is because the figures below have accounted for the dividend effects in the stocks. We have also shown the year-to-date gains up to the close of Thursday, July 29, 2010 and we even gave an implied upside target to the consensus analyst price objective in the shares.

Read more: 2010 Becomes The Year of the Conglomerates (GE, MMM, HON, UTX, BRK-A, SPY, DIA)

GE Consumer Finance Cuts Operations in Japan

General Electric Consumer Finance Scales Way Back
GE Consumer Finance in Japan offers credit cards, housing loans and insurance services.
Because of the Tokyo's decision to crack down on lenders charging exorbitant rates, 30%….making the max 20% in two years, GE Consumer, a subsidiary of General Electric, will scale down its operations.

Source: Japanlyst

Dividend and Long Term Outlook for GE

Guru Stocks Raising Dividends: General Electric Company
General Electric is one of the largest and most diversified industrial corporations in the world. General Electric Company has a market cap of $172.11 billion; its shares were traded at around $16.12 with a P/E ratio of 14.8 and P/S ratio of 1.1. The company raised its quarterly dividend 20% to 12 cents/share on Friday. The news sent the stock over 3% higher for the day. Whether the company can rebuild its streak of consecutive dividend increases remains to be seen however.

GE announced today second-quarter 2010 earnings from revenues decreased 4% to $37.4 billion. GE Capital Services’ (GECS) revenues fell 2% versus last year to $13.1 billion. Industrial sales were $24.4 billion, down 6% from the second quarter of 2009. Continuing operations (attributable to GE) were $3.3 billion, with EPS of $0.30 per share up 15% from the second quarter of 2009. Revenues were $37.4 billion for the quarter, down 4% from a year ago, impacted by lower GE Capital assets, industrial dispositions and lower equipment sales as expected.

The Unusual Suspects For This Week
General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE) is one that we’d want our readers to be involved in for a longer-term outlook. It has gotten through earnings season and is continuing to eliminate some of the finance unit’s dominance. NBC-Universal is still a deal under review but it is still in the process of being a stake divesting that will generate cash. With a 3% dividend yield after the hike and with its share buyback commencing immediately, there is probably more of a floor under the shares. After our review of conglomerates and their leadership over the broad market, we also found that G.E. is the conglomerate with the most implied upside for investors.

Continued Bond Bid-Rigging Indictments

U.S. Predicts More Indictments in Municipal Bond Bid-Rigging Investigation
More indictments are expected in a federal antitrust investigation of the $2.8 trillion municipal bond market, a prosecutor told a federal judge in New York.
Rebecca Meiklejohn, a lawyer with the Justice Department’s antitrust division, made the disclosure at a hearing in Manhattan in the criminal case of CDR Financial Products Inc. and three of its employees, charged as part of an ongoing probe of bid- and auction-rigging in the municipal market. Three ex- bankers with a General Electric Co. unit were indicted in same probe this week.
Lawyers for the CDR defendants went to court today to ask U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero to direct the government to give them early access to the prosecution’s evidence and identify any material that might help to clear their clients. Meiklejohn objected, saying the defendants weren’t entitled to early access and the government’s investigation is still moving ahead.
“This is a very expansive case,” Meikeljohn told Marrero, addressing the broader probe. “Just this week the government indicted more individuals in connection with this investigation. This is a continuing investigation and we expect there to be more indictments.”

More About Bond Bidding, from Amazon:
Electronic Bidding for Municipal Bonds: Technology Innovations for Competitive Bond Sales.: An article from: Government Finance ReviewRepetitive bidding for municipal bonds: A chance-constrained programming approach (Faculty working paper)

WSJ: GE Dividend: Good Sign or Management out of Ideas?

It’s no secret corporate America is sitting on a huge stash of cash these days, and investors are watching closely to see when/if/how they plan to spend it.
First, what not to do, according to my colleague Matt Phillips: use the extra cash to expand capacity. It seems investors are skittish about companies getting too gung-ho with the economy still on the mend.
But if investors don’t seem to crave aggressive business strategies, what’s a big cash-rich corporation to do?
General Electric offers one example. On Friday, the blue-chip announced it would raise its dividend by 20% and reinstate a share-buyback plan, the first dividend increase since the company slashed its dividend in early 2009.
GE shares have been reaping a short-term windfall from that decision. They’re up more than 5% in the past few days, an apparent vindication of an idea often overlooked by corporate chiefs: If you’re not going to spend all that cash, why not return it to shareholders?

READ THE FULL STORY HERE.

GE in Regulatory Hot Water

Three Former General Electric Bankers Are Indicted in Bid-Rigging Inquiry
Three former bankers with a General Electric Co. unit that sold investment contracts to state and local governments were indicted for conspiring to rig bidding to profit at taxpayers’ expense, the Justice Department said today.
Dominick P. Carollo, Steven E. Goldberg and Peter S. Grimm, all of whom once worked for finance units of General Electric, were charged with fraud and conspiracy, the Justice Department said. The three allegedly worked with brokers hired by local governments to solicit competitive bids for investment deals, in order to win the bidding and increase their profits.
“The individuals charged today allegedly participated in complex fraud schemes and conspiracies to manipulate what was supposed to be a competitive process,” Christine Varney, assistant attorney general in charge of the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division, said in a statement

GE to settle SEC charges of foreign bribery
General Electric agreed to pay $23.4 million on Tuesday to settle a Securities and Exchange Commission complaint, which alleges that GE bribed Iraqi government officials to win contracts to supply medical and water-purification equipment under the U.N. oil-for-food program.
The SEC alleges that two GE subsidiaries and two companies that the conglomerate later acquired paid $3.6 million in kickbacks to the Iraqi Health Ministry and Iraqi Oil Ministry for valuable contracts. The bribes, which are illegal under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, came in the form of cash, computer equipment, medical supplies and services, the SEC said.
The SEC alleges that two GE subsidiaries and two companies that the conglomerate later acquired paid $3.6 million in kickbacks to the Iraqi Health Ministry and Iraqi Oil Ministry for valuable contracts. The bribes, which are illegal under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, came in the form of cash, computer equipment, medical supplies and services, the SEC said.

Immelt and Obama at Odds

GE finds itself on wrong side of Obama's defense agenda
For more than a year, General Electric has been notable among U.S. corporations for enjoying generally friendly relations with the White House. The company was broadly supportive of President Obama's stimulus efforts, and its chairman, Jeffrey Immelt, sits on a White House economic advisory board.
But now the White House and GE are clashing publicly over a fighter-jet engine -- built by the company and its British partner, Rolls-Royce -- that has been on the Pentagon's chopping block for years, only to be rescued repeatedly by Congress. The issue is poised to come to a head Tuesday during a House subcommittee markup for the annual defense appropriations bill, which Obama has threatened to veto if it has the $485 million for the engine.
GE -- whose financing arm received billions of dollars in federal bailout funds -- has launched a furious lobbying and media effort in recent months aimed at securing funding for the engine, which would serve as an alternate for Lockheed Martin's F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. Pratt & Whitney, the Pentagon's choice for developing an F-35 engine, has fired back with a lobbying and advertising campaign of its own.

Recent Market and Stock Performance

Wall Street jumps on GE data
General Electric delivered a shot of confidence to US investors when it raised its dividend, pushing the S&P 500 through the key 1,100 level.
The Dow Jones industrial average gained 102.32 points, or 0.99 percent, to 10,424.62. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index rose 8.99 points, or 0.82 percent, to 1,102.66. The Nasdaq Composite Index added 23.58 points, or 1.05 percent, to 2,269.47.

Crash In Hindsight: General Electric Currently 4.70% Above its May 6th Crash Low of $15.00 (GE)
General Electric (NYSE:GE) is currently trading 4.70% above its May 6th low of $15.00. Investors are looking to see if this 'flash crash' low can act as support signaling the stock has completed a bottoming process.
In the past 52-weeks, shares of General Electric have traded between a low of $11.25 and a high of $19.7 and are now at $15.71, which is 39.60% above that low price.
SmarTrend is bearish on shares of General Electric and our subscribers were alerted to Sell on May 06, 2010 at $16.58. The stock has fallen 5.2% since the alert was issued.

BusinessWeek: Can GE Still Manage?

CEO Jeff Immelt says his company trains the best business leaders in the world. Yet they haven't saved him from a hellish decade that cut GE's value in half.

A couple of Fridays each month, Jeffrey R. Immelt hosts a sleepover. The chairman and CEO of General Electric (GE) invites one of the 185 officers of his company—and only one—to his home in New Canaan, Conn., for a leisurely meal. After a few drinks, some laughs, a plate of pasta, and a wide-ranging discussion of what's going on in the world, the two executives part. Immelt, 54, stays home while his guest heads to lodging at GE headquarters in nearby Fairfield. When they reconvene the next morning, things get personal. "We spend Saturday morning just talking about their careers," says Immelt. "Who they are, how they fit, how I see their strengths and weaknesses—stuff like that." One recent guest, Steve Bolze, president and CEO of GE Power & Water, calls it "a really nice discussion, a chance to get to know each other better."
What does it say about Immelt that after almost a decade in the top job he's looking for ways to bond with his team? "The personal connection is something I may have taken for granted before that I don't want to ever take for granted again," he says. "Sometimes there's a tendency to say, 'Well, this is an officer of the company. They've been here 20 years. They can figure it out. Do they really need me to draw them a diagram?' But you need to make the time."
The sleepovers are part of a major rethink by Immelt, a personal reevaluation of how GE equips its people to lead. The reappraisal was triggered by the global financial crisis, which shook the $157 billion-a-year conglomerate, almost destroyed its financial services unit, and sent its share price from $29 in the days before Lehman Brothers crashed to below $6. (It has since recovered to around $19, leaving GE's market cap, at roughly $200 billion, about half what it once was.) That led Immelt to become what he describes as "self-reflective on steroids" and to ask a hard question: "Was there one of my top 150 people who was thinking, 'You know, Jeff, commercial real estate shouldn't be so goddamn big,' but didn't have a way to say [it]?"
Immelt intends to spend this year exploring new ideas, which he describes as "wallowing in it," to decide how GE should shape and measure its leaders. He has solicited management suggestions from a broad range of organizations—from Google (GOOG) to China's Communist Party—and sent 30 of his top people to more than 100 companies worldwide. He's holding monthly dinners with 10 executives and an external "thought leader" to debate leadership. He launched a pilot program to bring in personal coaches for high-potential talent, a practice that GE once reserved mainly for those in need of remedial work. To increase exposure to the world beyond GE, Immelt is even reconsidering the age-old rule that employees can't sit on corporate boards. "I think about it all the time," he says. "You have to be willing to change when it makes sense."

READ THE FULL STORY HERE.

Recovery, Earnings, and Stock Performance

GE Investors Look Past Finance Rut for Stabilization
General Electric Co. investors say profit declines may be easing, allowing them to look beyond the slump for signs that Chief Executive Officer Jeffrey Immelt is stabilizing the finance unit and driving industrial orders. GE, the world’s biggest maker of jet engines, power-plant turbines and medical-imaging equipment, may say tomorrow that profit from continuing operations fell to 16 cents a share from 26 cents a year earlier, analysts estimate. Earnings may improve enough later in the year that GE can raise its dividend in 2011, the Fairfield, Connecticut-based company said in March. The prospect has lifted GE to the highest since the midst of the U.S. financial crisis 18 months ago. “They may actually surprise on the upside with real revenue growth here, and the comparisons are kind of easy,” said Peter Sorrentino, a senior portfolio manager at Huntington Asset Advisors in Cincinnati who helps handle $12.8 billion, including more than 2.1 million GE shares as of March 31. “Any little surprises on, say like energy systems, that’s the kind of thing that people are going to latch onto and say, ‘Hey, the big kids are back in town.’” GE may be poised to show investors steadily improving profit margins, cash generation and order growth amid a buffer of free cash that the company has predicted to be about $25 billion at the end of 2010, said Steven Winoker, an analyst with Sanford C. Bernstein & Co.GE may see one more quarter of declining earnings before profits start to climb against year-earlier comparisons in the second half, analysts surveyed by Bloomberg estimate.

Shares set to trim gains; eyes on GE
European shares were seen falling on Friday, trimming lofty gains made over the past two sessions, as investors awaited quarterly results from global conglomerate General Electric (GE.N) and fresh insight on the outlook for company profits.

Income Falls, but G.E. Tops Forecasts
General Electric, reassured by signs that a global recovery was gaining momentum, said on Friday that its profit for the year might exceed expectations. General Electric's aviation plant in Durham, N.C. G.E.'s chief , Jeffrey R. Immelt, said he saw “encouraging economic signs.”  “We feel pretty good about where we’re positioned as the recovery continues,” the chief executive, Jeffrey R. Immelt, told investors in a conference call about first-quarter results. He said G.E. might undertake additional cost-cutting as it refocused the business on its industrial components, which include production of items like wind turbines and jet engines.   G.E., based in Fairfield, Conn., said it was encouraged by indications that the tide of loan losses at its financial unit, GE Capital, was beginning to reverse. Credit card delinquencies have fallen, the company said, and losses on mortgages in Britain are easing.

GE Options Headlines from BusinessWeek & Forbes

GE Options Traders Boost Bullish Bets Before Earnings
Trading of bullish General Electric Co. options rose to more than triple the four-week average as investors boosted bets that the shares will keep rising from a 17-month high tomorrow after the company reports earnings. More than 310,000 calls giving the right to buy the stock changed hands at 4 p.m. New York time as the shares climbed a fourth day, adding 0.8 percent to $19.50. The most-active contracts were April $20 calls, which rose 50 percent to 15 cents for the fourth-biggest gain among GE options. Almost two calls changed hands today for each put option to sell the stock. This month’s options expire at tomorrow’s close.

Bulls Rush Into Ford, GE And Bank Of America
General Electric: Bullish players flooded the options arena on diverse conglomerate, General Electric Company, Thursday amid a more than 1.5% rally in the price of its shares to a new 52-week high of $19.69. Investors are positioning for continued upward momentum in the price of the underlying stock by coveting call options in the April and May contracts. Bullish traders purchased more than 42,600 calls at the April $20 strike for an average premium of $0.16 per contract. GE's share price must surpass the average breakeven point on the calls at $20.16 ahead of expiration tomorrow in order for call-buyers to accumulate profits on the call contracts. Buying interest spread to the May $20 strike where more than 12,200 calls were picked up for an average premium of $0.47 a-pop. These optimistic individuals make money as long as General Electric's shares rally approximately 4% from the new 52-week high of $19.69 to exceed the average breakeven price of $20.47 by May expiration. The overall reading of options implied volatility on GE is up 11.5% to 29.58% just after noon.

LED Revenue Growth, NBC Earnings, and GE's recovery

GE sees growth in LED revenue
“LEDs are probably the largest growth area” for the lighting industry, Michael Petras, chief executive officer of GE's lighting business, said in an interview in Frankfurt Monday. LEDs make up “less than 10 percent” of GE Lighting's global sales, and that proportion probably will rise to one-third by 2015, with the overall market doubling “in the next couple of years,” he said.

GE Lighting's sales will be “flat or slightly positive” this year, Petras said. They fell to $2.5 billion in 2009 from $2.8 billion in 2008, according to presentations on GE's Web site. GE is the world's third- largest lighting company, after Royal Philips Electronics and Siemens's Osram. Its Appliances & Lighting division is headquartered in Louisville.

NBC Universal earnings drag down parent General Electric's results

NBC Universal is relieved that its winter financial wipeout is finally over.

Parent company General Electric Co. on Friday released its first-quarter results, which included, as expected, substantial losses generated by NBC's coverage of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada.
Although GE posted a 32% drop in earnings, the company nonetheless beat analysts' expectations.
GE Chairman Jeffrey Immelt said there were signs the economy was improving, along with the industrial giant's profit margins -- except for a couple of problem divisions.
"NBC, because of the Olympics, was a drag on margins overall," Immelt said.
NBC Universal's operating profit of $199 million was down 49% compared with the first quarter of 2009. Revenue of $4.32 billion for the quarter was up 23% compared with the year-earlier period, but it was about flat when ad sales for the Olympics were excluded from the results.
GE executives warned investors several months ago that NBC would lose as much as $250 million on its coverage of the Vancouver Olympic Games -- but it did not turn out as bad as first feared. NBC ended up losing $223 million on the Olympics, GE said, thanks to better-than-anticipated advertising.
General Electric Rehab On Track
General Electric's road to recovery may be rocky, but it's on the road nonetheless as it beat Wall Street's views on first quarter profit.

Among the most important morsels withing GE's report was the update on the progress of GE's financial arm GE Capital Services. The good news is GE Chief Executive Jeffrey Immelt said losses appear to have peaked, but that's not to say the problems will be over anytime soon. GE Capital was able to report earnings of $607 million in the first quarter, but commercial real estate continues to be "challenging". Thankfully, losses, delinquencies and non-earning assets have also declined during the first quarter.

General Electric, Diplomat to China

General Electric (NYSE:GE) in "Country to Company" Relationship to China
Last November General Electric (NYSE:GE) and China announced they had entered into what they called a "Country to Company" agreement, which implied and I think, outright announced, that China considered General Electric to be on equal footing to another country; as a matter of fact, calling it a "Country to Company" agreement by China did put General Electric on par with them being a country.

This is a fascinating development, but not really a surprising one when you think of it. General Electric, at the time of this writing, has a market cap of a little under $200 billion. There are a number of countries in the world that struggle to come close to that figure, so General Electric, and other companies, indeed are larger and more powerful as a business partner than entire countries.
Some have become bothered by this reality, but it's not that big of a deal to me, and General Electric and other companies have every right to enter into agreements with business partners from other countries.
One factor which has troubled some people is the large companies like General Electric, with the deals they've made with China and other countries, having a place on the president's Business Advisory Board, while small business representatives like the National Federation of Independent Business and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce aren't invited to the party.
This of course does leave out an important voice of American enterprise out of the equation and limits the view of what needs to be done, especially with the creation of American jobs.

General Electric Recent Stock Performance, Commentary, and Earnings Preview

Chasing Value: When Will General Electric Double?
There are plenty of disgruntled shareholders out there who are unhappy with their General Electric (GE) stock, which has compressed in value over the last ten years from a high near $60 in August 2000 to a low around $8.50 in March 2009. GE was one my 2009 stock picks that disappointed by underperforming the group and the over all market. If you are among the patient, stubborn and hoping shareholders, this year provided more than a glimmer of hope.

Is GE a Buy?
General Electric's (NYSE: GE) stock has had a great run recently -- it's up 24% year to date, and up 187% from its market's crisis low on March 5 last year. Is it still worth buying?
A world-class company selling at average multiples?

The data I looked at (part of which is included in the above table) show that GE is squarely in the middle of its peer group along a wide array of valuation metrics: price-to-earnings based on estimated earnings per share for 2010, 2011, and 2012, price-to-tangible book value and dividend yield. A world-class company priced at average valuations? Surely that's a "buy" signal. Hold on: The companies in GE's peer group are hardly run-of-the-mill: Many of them are also superlative businesses (or sets of businesses, since we're talking about conglomerates).

GE Bull Still Sees Soft First Quarter
Morgan Stanley likes where General Electric(GE) is going but, at least as the far as the first quarter is concerned, it thinks the company is not quite there yet. The outlook for GE is improving as order rates continue to strengthen and GECS [GE Capital] concerns appear increasingly manageable," Morgan Stanley said in a research note on Monday. "1Q10 will likely be another soft quarter however, as loss from Olympics, softness in late cycle businesses and increasing GECS provisioning keep pressure on earnings."

Earnings Preview : General Electric (NYSE : GE), Q1, 2010
General Electric (NYSE: GE) will release the company's first quarter of 2010 earnings on Friday, April 16. The release will be immediately followed by a conference call at 8:30 AM to discuss the earnings report. Conference call participants will be Jeff Immelt, Chairman and CEO; Keith Sherin, Vice Chairman and CFO; and Trevor Schauenberg, VP Investor Communications. General Electric is one of the largest and most diversified industrial corporations in the world. GE is engaged in developing, manufacturing and marketing a wide variety of products for the generation, transmission, distribution, control and utilization of electricity. Some of GE''s products include major appliances; lighting products; industrial automation products; medical diagnostic imaging equipment; motors; electrical distribution and control equipment; locomotives; power generation and delivery products.

Jeffrey Immelt to Give Commencement Address at Hamilton College

General Electric CEO Jeffrey Immelt to Give Commencement Address
Jeffrey Immelt P'10, chairman and chief executive officer of General Electric Company (GE), will deliver the Commencement address to the Class of 2010 on Sunday, May 23. Immelt has had a tumultuous, but successful stint at GE thus far. His first years were difficult – he took command four days before the 9/11 terrorist attack in 2001, and he led GE through the recession at the turn of the century and the Enron collapse (when the public became increasingly skeptical of CEOs of large corporations). Immelt has now been CEO at GE for over eight years, and financial magazine Barron's has named him one of the "World's Best CEOs" three times. He also serves on the board of the New York Federal Reserve Bank.

LED Lightbulbs and London Olympics

GE's New $50 LED Lightbulb Pricey, but Future-Proofed?
A new lightbulb might not sound like the most exciting piece of technology in the world. Nevertheless, GE has unleashed a little monster of an LED bulb that does its best to imitate the common features (including brightness and lighting angles) of a conventional incandescent bulb. And since it's based on light-emitting diodes, rather than a heated-up filament, it will use one-fourth of the typical power draw of an incandescent bulb to output its 450 lumens—the brightness equivalent of a 40-watt incandescent bulb.

The kicker? Picking up the GE Energy Smart LED Bulb will set you back anywhere from $40 to $50. That's a bit pricier than your standard $1-$2 incandescent bulb. However, GE expects its LED bulb to last 17 years—or a 25,000-hour life—if run four hours a day, every day. That's 25 times the lifespan of a typical incandescent bulb and three times the availability of an average 8,000-hour CFL bulb. The GE Energy Smart LED Bulb fits normal incandescent sockets, which is a nice touch for those worried about having to replace infrastructure just to harness the power of environmentally friendly lighting.

General Electric strengthens team in London for 2012 Olympics
General Electric, a TOP Olympic sponsor, has announced that it has bolstered its UK corporate communications efforts ahead of London hosting the 2012 Olympics with two new appointments.

Mark Maguire, 36, has been appointed in the newly created role of communications director for GE UK.
He will report to Mark Elborne, the President and chief executive of GE Northern Europe with immediate effect.
Maguire will be responsible for the company’s corporate image and brand identity amongst external stakeholders - in particular through the media.
In addition to media relations he will be responsible for all internal corporate communications, as well as optimising sponsorship and corporate social responsibility opportunities for GE in the UK - in particular GE’s London 2012 Olympics sponsorship.

GE's Tax Payments = $0

You Pay More Tax Than General Electric
Chances are you've probably written your tax check by now, or you've been writing it throughout the year, but maybe you're wondering what your bosses are paying?

If you're General Electric, for example, you haven't paid taxes since 2008.
I caught this little nugget today, and what seems to be driving it is some phenomenal corporate skullduggery that most of us probably wish we could do with our own tax records--GE's got this subsidiary, GE Capital, which is a financial services outfit. And GE Capital has been losing just phenomenal amounts of money. While GE itself has made massive piles of money--just over ten billion in 2009--GE Capital lost six and a half billion that same year.
Since business losses are deductible, along with many other common operational expenses--and moreover, GE had a lot of profitable operations in other countries that they don't need to pay United States taxes on right away--this allowed GE's total tax obligation to be NEGATIVE one billion dollars.

Seeking Alpha: General Electric: The End of 'Dead Money'

General Electric: The End of 'Dead Money'
The markets are down roughly half a percent today, but General Electric (GE) is up 1.36% at the moment. As shown in the chart below, GE has really done well in recent weeks. Below is a relative strength chart of General Electric compared to the S&P 500 over the last 10 years. As shown, GE underperformed the overall market for pretty much the entire 2000s decade. It underperformed during the 2003-2007 bull and also during the 2007-2009 bear. During the current bull market, however, GE has outperformed the S&P 500. There are lots of mutual funds and other investors out there that have owned this bellwether for years that really hope this continues. Is GE finally ready to lose the "dead money" label?

Maclean’s Interview: Jeffrey Immelt

Jeffrey Immelt is the chairman and CEO of General Electric, one of the world’s largest corporations, and a member of U.S. President Barack Obama’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board. Since the financial crisis he’s been an outspoken critic of corporate excess and failed leadership. But he has also faced criticism of his own from GE investors who’ve seen shares fall 60 per cent since he took over in 2001. Immelt spoke to Maclean’s during a visit to Vancouver for the Winter Olympics.

Q: In a speech at the West Point military academy in December, you said we’ve come through an era when business went from tough-mindedness, which is a good trait, to meanness and greed. What did you mean by that?

A: Over a period of time, not enough effort has been put forward to investing in the capability and long-term growth of the productive middle class of the United States. Less money has been invested in research and development and manufacturing, with more of a transition to financial services. When a country from 1980 to 2010 goes from being an export powerhouse to an unbelievably consumption-driven net importer, that’s not a good trend.

Q: Can it be reversed?
A: It’s going to take lots of spending on R & D, and a real dedication to making our workforce more productive again. Seven per cent of U.S. GDP is exports. In Germany, it’s 35 per cent. Germany’s not a low-cost country. Germany is not Mexico. And there’s no reason why the U.S. can’t have some kind of destiny that’s like that.

Red the Full Interview Here.

Dividend, Stock Performance, Jeffery Immelt, "Buy" Rating, and 10%+ Gain

GE's Increased Dividend - Not Until 2011
Speaking at a Goldman Sachs investor conference yesterday, General Electric (GE) CFO Keith Sherin indicated that profits at the conglomerate will begin growing again in 2011. GE’s profits have been in decline since 2007 and Wall Street expects another decline this year.

Dividend investors also have reason to cheer as GE’s CFO also indicated that the company plans to begin growing their dividend again, but not until 2011.
Early in 2009, GE slashed their quarterly dividend by 68% just as the stock was hitting its lowest point. Prior to the dividend cut, GE had been a member of the elite Dividend Aristocrats – stocks that had increased their dividends for 25 consecutive years or more. In fact, the dividend cut was the first for the company since 1938.
With earnings expected to begin recovering in the second half of this year, many dividend investors were hoping that GE would hike their dividend in 2010.
While GE’s dividend yield is a rather average 2.3%, investors who dumped their shares when the company cut their dividend are surely kicking themselves now. Since cutting their dividend, GE stock has soared 115% and is up 21% in 2010 (second only to Boeing (BA) among Dow stocks).
Wall Street’s consensus estimates call for $1.00 EPS in 2010 for GE. With an annual dividend of $.40 per share, GE would have a dividend payout ratio of 40%. In 2006, GE’s dividend payout ratio was 46% and in 2007 it was 47%. With EPS expected to climb to $1.22 per share in 2011, a more modest 41% target dividend payout ratio would result in a dividend increase of 25% to $.50 per share. While 25% is a significant increase to their dividend payment, it may take such a bold move to win back dividend investors who are still smarting from last year’s huge dividend cut.

GE: Don't call it a comeback
Has Jeff Immelt finally made General Electric investors forget the legendary Jack Welch?

That's a stretch -- investors can no longer count on GE beating estimates and posting double-digit earnings growth in good times and bad.
But the current GE (GE, Fortune 500) CEO -- and the company's shareholders -- finally have a lot to smile about.

GE, which was the second-worst performer in the Dow last year, falling nearly 7%, has staged a remarkable turnaround. The stock is up 20% in 2010, the second-best Dow component behind Boeing (BA, Fortune 500).
Is the rally justified? Perhaps.

General Electric Is A Buy
After a decade of disaster, the past 12 months have finally given General Electric shareholders something to crow about. The industrial megalith has seen its shares rise 79% in that time, and recent momentum is highly encouraging for GE longs; GE rose 4.2% last week, making it the best performing stock on the Dow Jones industrial average.

This rebound, however, has been a long time coming. Over the past decade GE shares are down 61%, badly lagging the S&P 500 Index, which is down 19% in that span. Along the way GE did the sacrosanct and cut its dividend last February in order to hang on to its AAA credit rating. Despite slashing the dividend by 68%, Standard & Poor's ultimately downgraded GE debt to AA+.

General Electric: Up 10% Since Last Thursday
General Electric (GE) has had a pretty good couple of days.

Since last Thursday, the stock has gained more than 10%, which is a big move for GE. The move has propelled GE to its highest level since late 2008, and it has made a big impact on the S&P 500 given its size.
General Electric's high in 2007 was $42.15, and the stock is still 57% below that level even after its recent gains.

The Globe and Mail: Is Jeffrey Immelt bad for GE?

The Globe and Mail: Is Jeffrey Immelt bad for GE?
I would hardly want to go on the record as being an apologist for bloated executive compensation, especially when said compensation is out of line with shareholder value. But it seems to me that Brett Arends’ takedown of Jeffrey Immelt misses the point.

In an article on MarketWatch, Mr. Arends noted that Mr. Immelt took the helm of General Electric Co. (GE-N17.290.251.47%) nine years ago (hat tip: Abnormal Returns). Since then, GE’s share price has fallen to about $16 (U.S.) from $40. Even after factoring in dividends (which were slashed, by the way) shareholders are still down about 40 per cent. Factor in inflation, and they are down about 50 per cent.
For his troubles, Mr. Immelt has been compensated handsomely – and that’s the part that gets under Mr. Arends’ skin. He writes: “Since succeeding Jack Welch in 2001, Immelt has been paid a total of $28.2-million in salary and another $28.6-million in cash bonuses, for total payments of $56.8-million. That’s over nine years, and in addition to all his stock- and option-grant entitlements. It doesn’t end there. Along with all his cash payments, Immelt also has accumulated a remarkable pension fund worth $32-million. That would be enough to provide, say, a 60-year-old retiree with a lifetime income of $192,000 a month.”
It’s not a pretty assessment, and investors may easily conclude that General Electric is a stock to avoid. But what Mr. Arends fails to point out is that Mr. Immelt inherited a troubled stock market (following the dot-com crash) and a wobbling global economy (in 2007) in which to operate. Without him, would GE have fared considerably better?
It probably isn't fair to measure Mr. Immelt’s value to shareholders using GE’s share price as a yardstick. Even Warren Buffett would agree it may not be the best approach. In his latest letter to shareholders, Mr. Buffett actually brought up Mr. Immelt’s name as an example of why he doesn’t like to use changes in Berkshire Hathaway’s share price as a way to sum up the short-term success of the company (or its management, presumably). He writes:
“Year-to-year market prices can be extraordinarily erratic. Even evaluations covering as long as a decade can be greatly distorted by foolishly high or low prices at the beginning or end of the measurement period. Steve Ballmer, of Microsoft, and Jeff Immelt, of GE, can tell you about that problem, suffering as they do from the nosebleed prices at which their stocks traded when they were handed the managerial baton.”

Globe Investor

Immelt’s Letter to Shareholders

Immelt’s Letter to Shareholders Outlines GE’s Plans for American Renewal
Jeff Immelt, Chairman and CEO of General Electric, recently released his annual letter to shareholders in which he outlined GE’s strategy for job growth in America.

“GE wants to help lead an American growth renewal,” said Immelt. “We are investing more in technology than at any time in our history. We are rebuilding manufacturing capability. We are selling our products in every corner of the world. We are one of the country’s biggest exporters, with $18 billion in export-related revenue. We are financing small and medium-sized companies and working with them to grow their businesses.”

http://www.ge.com/ar2009/letter.html

MarketWatch: GE has been an investor disaster under Jeff Immelt

GE has been an investor disaster under Jeff Immelt
Commentary: CEO spends $200,000 on jets, $36,000 for car lease last year

When things go well, the top dogs of major companies rack up hundreds of millions of dollars, even billions, on their stock allotments and options.

It's always justified on the grounds that they've created lots of shareholder value. But what happens when things go badly?
For one example, take a look at General Electric Co., one of America's biggest and most important companies. It just revealed its latest annual glimpse inside the executive swag bag.

By any measure of shareholder value, GE has been a disaster under Jeffrey Immelt. Investors haven't made a nickel since he took the helm as chairman nine years ago. In fact, they've lost tens of billions of dollars.
The stock, which was $40 and change when Immelt took over, has collapsed to around $16. Even if you include dividends, investors are still down about 40%. In real post-inflation terms, stockholders have lost about half their money.

MarketWatch

Immelt forgoes bonus and says jobs are being 'added back'

General Electric CEO Immelt Says No to Bonus, Again
The chairman and chief executive of General Electric, Jeff Immelt, who has railed against the “meanness and greed” of Wall Street, has refused to accept a bonus for the second year in a row. Immelt, who has reigned as head of the world’s largest company for a decade, declined to take a bonus to set an example, as GE begins to recover from the recession. But don’t feel too bad for Immelt, his total compensation package for 2009 exceeded $9 million.
According to GE’s proxy statement, Immelt did not accept an end of the year bonus, despite “delivering a strong financial performance” during a severe recession.

GE CEO Immelt forgoes bonus in 2009
Jeffrey Immelt, the chairman of U.S. conglomerate General Electric Co., declined a cash bonus in 2009 for the second year in a row, according to a regulatory filing by GE.

Immelt, 54, made $3.3 million in salary for 2009. The company revealed in a proxy filing that other executives at the firm took home more than $10 million in 2009 bonuses.
GE’s top-line revenues declined 14 percent in 2009 to $156.8 billion. Earnings from operations dropped 38 percent to $11.2 billion. GE is a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average.

GE Has ‘Added Back’ Employees Recently, Immelt Says
General Electric Co. is hiring back workers as the U.S. economy has begun to expand and growth in emerging markets has continued unabated, Chief Executive Officer Jeffrey Immelt said.

“In the last few months we have added back employees,” Immelt said during a presentation with U.S. Export-Import Bank Chairman Fred Hochberg in Washington today.
Global demand for health-care services and locomotives will drive growth at the Fairfield, Connecticut-based company, the world’s biggest maker of jet engines, medical-imaging equipment and locomotives, Immelt said. About 50 percent of that demand will be from outside the U.S., Immelt said.
President Barack Obama has said he wants to double U.S. exports in the next five years. Immelt said that goal is “as important as anything he has done.”
Brazil has been the most surprising economy in its growth in recent years, and now GE is looking to determine if Indonesia or another emerging market will be the surprise in the next few years.
GE, which gets more than half its revenue internationally, can be instrumental in helping the U.S. remain a leading exporter and had about $18 billion in export-related sales last year alone, Immelt said earlier this month in an annual letter to shareholders.
Immelt urged passage of pending U.S. free trade agreements, saying efforts in Congress to stall the deals sends the wrong message to economic partners overseas.

Wind and Aerospace Growth

GE unit invests $65M in wind farm
"Ecomagination" is alive and growing at General Electric Co. as the Fairfield-based giant continues its investment in renewable energy.
GE Energy Financial Services in Stamford has taken a $65 million stake in a 152-megawatt wind farm near Woodward, Okla., and it is pursuing an energy purchase agreement for a proposed hydroelectric plant in British Columbia, Canada.
CPV Renewable Energy Co., an affiliate of Competitive Power Ventures Inc., has started construction of the CPV Keenan II wind farm, with the goal of finishing it by December. The project has secured a 20-year power purchase agreement with Oklahoma Gas & Electric Co., and is expected to generate enough electricity to power about 45,000 average Oklahoma homes.
According to U.S. Environmental Protection methodology, it will avoid about 413,000 tons a year of greenhouse gas emissions -- the equivalent of taking nearly 72,000 cars off the road -- by generating electricity with wind power rather than fossil fuels.

GE project would boost Ohio aerospace growth

General Electric Co.’s pending decision about whether to build a research and testing center to advance the production of electrical power systems for military and civilian aircraft would boost Ohio’s effort to establish itself as a national hub for aerospace research and development, officials said.

GE has said that southwest Ohio is a leading candidate for the site, if the company’s leadership gives the go-ahead for establishing the center at a current GE operation. That would include GE Aviation’s jet engine plant in the Cincinnati suburb of Evendale and its GE Electrical Power Systems business in Vandalia.
Ohio has offered GE a $7.6 million incentive grant to support the project.
Company sites in Grand Rapids, Mich.; Erlanger, Ky., and Cheltenham, England, also are possibilities.

MarketWatch: General Electric's Immelt forgoes bonus again & Watch List

General Electric's Immelt forgoes bonus again
General Electric Co. Chairman Jeff Immelt has opted not to take an annual cash bonus in 2009 for the second straight year as he aimed to steer the industrial conglomerate out of a deep recession.

However, other top executives at GE took home bonuses totaling more than $10 million.
In 2009, GE's earnings from continuing operations were $11.2 billion, down 38% from in 2008. Revenue dropped 14% to $156.8 billion. GE shares, one of the 30 Dow Jones Industrial Average components, fell 6.6% in 2009, compared to the roughly 19% gain for the Dow.
Total compensation for Immelt in 2009 was $9.885 million, up from $9.28 million in 2008, mostly due to the increase in the value of his pension and deferred compensation, GE explained Friday in its proxy statement.
The 54-year old Immelt earned a salary of $3.3 million and performance stock units valued at $1.79 million. His salary hasn't changed since 2005.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
General Electric plans to ramp up college hiring efforts this year. "We have decided to double our on-campus hiring in the 2010 recruitment cycle versus the previous year," GE CEO Jeff Immelt said in his annual letter to shareholders released Friday. Immelt didn't cite how many students GE hired last year or the number of graduates GE plans to offer jobs to in 2010.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

MarketWatch

Green Energy, Clean Energy, Coal-Beautification, Tobacco-Free, and Nuclear Plants in Poland

General Electric (GE) Stock – Will Green Energy Make It Pop?
There’s no question that General Electric (NYSE:GE) is counting on green energy to help boost revenues. General Electric Co. CEO Jeffrey Immelt spoke to the ARPA-E Energy Innovation Conference in Washington and was clear about what he felt the country needed to do.

He indicated he was afraid that America would be non competitive in the alternative energy markets if action wasn’t taken quickly.
“Right now we have no certainty around an energy future,” Immelt said. “Let’s not take this growth industry and give it to every other country in the world but the U.S.”
Immelt went on to highlight ways he thought the government could help sell green energy to the masses and to protect American industry.

GE CEO Immelt: U.S. lags in clean energy; federal smart grid oversight needed
On the global stage, the United States is facing its stiffest competition to date in the race for clean energy, said General Electric CEO Jeffrey Immelt at a conference in Maryland.

Speaking at the ARPA-E Summit in National Harbor, Md., Immelt said energy demand is redirecting toward the developing world, and unclear policies and low levels of research and development spending could hinder U.S. progress moving forward — despite new technologies in the pipeline.
“Unless we have a broad perspective on job creation, innovation, and technology growth, we are going to fall behind as a country,” Immelt said, as reported by SmartPlanet sister site CNET. “We need growth as a country and globally we play in a much more competitive arena than any other time in our lifetimes.”
Immelt said current trends indicate that Asian countries will demand energy products at a higher rate than the U.S. or Europe — drawing businesses, innovation and supply chain strength to those countries.
As an example, Immelt said the number of passenger cars sold in China and India will be more than twice the number sold in the U.S. by 2020.

GE Is on a Coal-Beautification Mission
General Electric is "changing the perception of coal energy in America." It's clean -- and sexy. Just watch this TV ad. But wait there's more. Here's the problem: you've got lots of coal in the ground that you want to use to generate electricity and profits. But coal has a reputation for being dirty and causing tons of pollution. So what do you do?

General Electric to go tobacco-free in 2011: Work sites to be tobacco-free
A year ago, General Electric Co. promised financial incentives to U.S. employees who kicked the smoking habit.

Now, the company is going a step further, launching a new policy that would make all the company's work sites tobacco-free by this time in 2011.
There are some other differences between then and now.
For one thing, the Connecticut-based company, one of the world's largest, is addressing only at-work behavior.
Employees won't be asked to sign a tobacco-free pledge that extends beyond the workplace, said Stephan Koller, a spokesman for GE Transportation, based in Lawrence Park Township.
But they will be asked to refrain from using tobacco of all kinds on company property.
General Electric to go tobacco-free in 2011: Work sites to be tobacco-free
GE Hitachi To Build Nuclear Plants In Poland - Update
GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy, and Polish power company Polska Grupa Energetyczna SA, Friday said they have signed a new agreement to collaborate on Poland's initiative to build next-generation commercial nuclear power plants. GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy is a nuclear alliance formed by General Electric Co. (GE: News ) and Hitachi Ltd. (HIT: News ).

Through this alliance, Poland plans to build two nuclear power plants that would help the country diversify its energy production, which currently relies heavily on coal-based technologies.

United Technologies Acquires GE Security and Energy Policy

United Technologies buys GE security operations
HARTFORD, Conn. — United Technologies Corp. says it has completed its $1.82 billion purchase of General Electric Co.'s fire detection and electronic security business.

CEO Louis Chenevert said Monday the acquisition strengthens United Technologies' fire and security business.
United Technologies, parent of jet engine maker Pratt & Whitney, Otis elevator and Sikorsky Aircraft, announced the deal in November.

GE’s Immelt Says U.S. Needs Strong Actions on Energy
The U.S. government must take “strong actions” to stay competitive with countries such as China and Japan in a race to build wind turbines and nuclear reactors, General Electric Co. chief Jeffrey Immelt said.

“Right now we have no certainty around an energy future,” Immelt, GE’s chief executive officer, said today in a speech to the ARPA-E Energy Innovation Conference in Washington’s Maryland suburbs. “Let’s not take this growth industry and give it to every other country in the world but the U.S.”
Asia makes more than half the world’s wind and solar energy equipment, and is gaining ground as U.S. factories lose out to cheaper labor and higher demand for clean energy. China for the first time topped the U.S. in wind-turbine manufacturing and installations last year, the Brussels-based Global Wind Energy Council said yesterday in a report.

Immelt has helped lead the U.S. Climate Action Partnership, or USCAP, a coalition of businesses and environmental groups calling for Congress to put a cap on carbon-dioxide emissions. The group says legislation is needed so companies such as utilities and their suppliers know how to proceed with long-term investments. A measure passed by the House last year has stalled in the Senate.

NBC's Olympic Gold

Olympic sponsors strike marketing gold with tie-ins to green Games
Hockey's Great One clutched a recyclable torch as he rode in a hybrid pickup en route to ignite the natural gas Olympic flame on an iconic voyage that shone an international spotlight on the creators of those clean energy innovations.

Wayne Gretzky's Olympic moment was a veritable showcase of products from high-profile corporate sponsors seeking to tie their brands to Vancouver's promise to host the greenest Games in history, including GM Canada, maker of the Silverado hybrid, and Bombardier Inc. (TSX:BBD.B), which manufactured the mostly recyclable torch.
Environmental sustainability is a well-publicized theme for the Vancouver Olympic organizing committee, which has pressured corporate sponsors, from Bell Canada (TSX:BCE) to Canadian Pacific Railway (TSX:CP), to reduce their environmental footprints.

NBC’s Last Day of Olympics Draws 19.8 Million Viewers
NBC’s final night of Olympics coverage attracted 19.8 million viewers, carrying the network to victory in the Nielsen ratings, according to preliminary data.

The broadcaster, part of General Electric Co., also drew 5.3 percent of the 18-to-49-year-old viewers advertisers target to the final night in Vancouver, according to Nielsen Co. data supplied by the networks today, the most for prime time.

Warren Buffet and Berkshire Hathaway's Investments, 2009

Berkshire Hathaway $1B+ Investment Holdings At Yearend 2009
As is his practice in his annual letter to shareholders, Berkshire Hathaway chairman Warren Buffett listed the company's common stock investments that at yearend, in this case Dec. 31, 2009, had a market value of more than $1 billion. Click the more link to see the list.
In addition, Berkshire Hathaway owns positions in non-traded securities of Dow Chemical, General Electric, Goldman Sachs, Swiss Re and Wrigley with an aggregate cost of $21.1 billion and a carrying value of $26.0 billion. It also 76,777,029 shares (22.5%) of BNSF at yearend, which were then carried at $85.78 per share, but which have subsequently been melded into Berkshire's purchase of the entire company.

The Oracle's Tips for the Rest of Us
Every few years, critics say Warren Buffett has lost his touch. He's too old and too old-fashioned, they claim. He doesn't get it anymore. This time he's wrong.

It happened during the dotcom bubble, when Mr. Buffett was mocked for refusing to join the party. And it happened again last year. As the Dow tumbled below 7,000, Mr. Buffett came under fire for having jumped into the crisis too early and too boldly, making big bets on Goldman Sachs and General Electric during the fall of 2008, and urging the public to plunge into shares.
Now it's time for those critics to sit down for their traditional three course meal: humble pie, their own words and crow.
On Saturday, Mr. Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway reported that net earnings rocketed 61% last year to $5,193 per share, while book value jumped 20% to a record high. Berkshire's Class A shares, which slumped to nearly $70,000 last year, have rebounded to $120,000.

Those bets on GE and Goldman? They've made billions so far. And anyone who took Mr. Buffett's advice and invested in the stock market in October 2008, even through a simple index fund, is up about 25%.

General Electric Olympic Advertising

AdHack Blog: Olympic Brand Highlights: General Electric (GE)
don’t know about you, but I was so excited when I found out that the Robson Square Ice Rink was going to re-open. Well, we can thank General Electric for that, because of their partnership with the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Games and the Province of British Columbia. Here are a few shots of the new GE Plaza’s flashy looking rink from Flickr.
GE is also a large contributor in making the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics the sustainable Games, or the “Green Games,” as so many like to call them. Here you can see an interactive map of the Olympic venues, which shows how GE is making a difference by providing sustainable products – necessary items like lighting systems, power, and fire alarms at each venue.

GE goes for advertising gold during Olympics
One of the most prominent advertisers during the Winter Olympics is hawking goods that few households will ever need: hand-held ultrasound imaging equipment or nationwide computer networks for medical records.

The prime-time television ads by GE Healthcare, the medical technologies arm of General Electric Co., show vignettes with doctors, patients and hospital technology that coincide with the national debate over health care reform.
And the political timing is hardly a coincidence, according to media and industry analysts. Since he took over as chief executive of GE Healthcare in 2008, John Dineen has made no secret that he wants to influence Washington's policies _ not least because federal spending caps on imaging reimbursements hit hard at GE's diagnostic imaging group in Waukesha, Wis., which laid off several hundred workers over the past two years.

General Electric 2010 Olympics Commercial


EXTRA! From GE:Map of GE Business Solutions for the Olympic Games

GE to sell Turkey's Garanti Bank and Canadian Wind Farm Study

GE said to plan sale of $3.3B stake in Turkey's Garanti -Reuters
General Electric Co. will sell its $3.3 billion stake in Turkey's Garanti Bankasi AS , Reuters quotes sources in GE Money as saying Thursday. GE Money is part of the U.S.-based conglomerate's GE Capital division.

GE has a 20.85% stake in Garanti, the most actively traded stock on the Istanbul exchange and Turkey's largest listed lender by market value.
"GE Money is selling its stake in Garanti Bank in line with its global reduction strategy," a GE Money source said.
GE bought a 25.5% stake from Turkish investment firm Dogus Group for $1.6 billion in 2005, then sold part of its holding back to Dogus in 2007.

New GE Study Shows Canadian Wind Farms' Profits Would Exceed Government Investment
GE Energy Financial Services, a unit of General Electric (NYSE:GE), recently released a study showing the benefits of federal Canadian wind power incentives.

The study estimated that injecting an additional C$1.5 billion into Canada’s ecoENERGY for Renewable Power program could spawn 5.2 gigawatts of new wind projects. The program would not only recoup its costs, but it would generate additional revenue for of C$287 million for Canada’s governments.
In addition to providing emissions-free electricity, the federal financial incentive program for wind energy projects would more than pay for itself through tax revenues from the projects’ income, corporations’ profits, and individual workers’ wages. An indirect tax benefit is also created when workers and corporations spend money on products and services – creating more jobs. This expansion of wind power would create 49,000 jobs, directly or indirectly, during construction and more than 1,800 permanent jobs. READ PRESS RELEASE HERE [PDF]

Immelt, Paulson, Financial Crisis, Unionized Workers Job Cuts

Immelt, Paulson Talk Financial Crisis ($)
General Electric Co. CEO Jeff Immelt interviewed Henry Paulson about the former Treasury Secretary's new book on the financial crisis at an event last week. But the two didn't address potentially controversial conversations Mr. Paulson's book says the two had at the height of the crisis.

The discussion at the 92nd Street Y in Manhattan Thursday evening was framed around Mr. Paulson's new book, "On the Brink: Inside the Race to Stop the Collapse of the Global Financial System," and gave Mr. Paulson a chance to present his view of the crisis. Mr. Paulson defended his actions, which he believes ...

GE's unionized workers bore brunt of cuts, WSJ blog says
A report at the Wall Street Journal's web site today says unionized and service workers bore the brunt of job reductions at General Electric Co. last year. According to GE's annual report filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday, the overall workforce fell 5.9 percent to 304,000 at the end of Deember from 323,000 a year earlier.  But the company's unionized manufacturing and service workforces fell 19 percent to 15,600 from 19,250 in December 2008, according to the MarketBeat blog at wsj.com.

2009 Layoffs, Iraq Energy, GE Executive Bonuses, Debt, Appliances at the Olympics

GE's Work Force Fell by 6 Percent in 2009
General Electric's overall work force fell by about 6 percent worldwide in 2009 as it struggled to deal with the effects of the deep recession and financial crisis, according to a company regulatory filing Friday.
GE's annual report shows the industrial and financial heavyweight reduced its overall employee head count by about 19,000 jobs to 304,000 workers. It's the second year in a row that jobs have fallen at one of the world's largest companies after several years of job growth earlier in the decade.
Excluding 16,000 jobs that came on the company's rolls last year when it took a majority stake in a Central American bank, GE's work force fell by 35,000. That was much larger than the 4,000 drop in jobs in 2008, the year that GE first began to feel the effects of the global downturn.
Worst hit was the conglomerate's GE Capital lending unit, which saw profits crumble last year as credit dried up and its losses on loans gone bad soared in areas like commercial real estate and credit cards. GE Capital shed 25 percent of its work force to finish 2009 at about 55,000 employees, part of a company plan to significantly shrink the size of the division.

GE expands energy footprint in Iraq
General Electric Co. announced it would join its partners in Iraqi Kurdistan to advance $200 million in power generation projects.
GE through its partners at Mass Global Investment Co. advanced the development of six gas-turbine power units for plants in Dahuk and Sulaymaniyah.
The projects are intended to meet the growing energy demand in the northern Kurdish provinces, the Kurdistan Regional Government in Iraq announced.

GE sets bonuses targets for 1,000 executives
General Electric said Friday it will pay bonuses to about 1,000 executives, including CEO Jeffrey Immelt, if the conglomerate hits business goals through 2012.
The grants will be based on the company's earnings per share, cash flow, ending investment of GE Capital, and 2012 return on total capital.
Depending on how well the company does, executives could get 75 percent to double their February 2013 base salary and separate bonuses for 2012 performance.
Immelt refused a bonus in 2008 and millions of dollars in performance awards, saying that the company's falling profits and plummeting share price prompted him to forgo the payments.
In a separate filing, GE detailed recent results for five business segments created in a Jan. 1 reorganization.
The company created a new home and business unit that includes appliances and lighting and shuffled some functions among the other units -- technology, energy, finance, and NBC Universal.

GE Capital offers to exchange $7.7 bln in debt
General Electric Co.'s financing arm, GE Capital, said Wednesday it is offering holders of about $7.7 billion in debentures a chance to exchange that debt for a bonus payment and other securities.
GE Capital is offering to pay those who accept the offer within 10 days a cash payment of 1 percent of the principal amount of the debt. That payment falls to 0.5 percent for the following 10 days.
The exchange, for trust securities with the same maturity and interest rate, is a move to boost GE Capital's so-called Tier 1 capital, a measure of health for financial institutions.
The offer applies to five lots of subordinated debentures that mature in 2067 with various interest rates.

GE shows smart appliances at Olympics
General Electric Co.’s GE Appliances & Lighting has opened The Home of the Future, featuring GE Profile Smart appliances, at the Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games.
The futuristic “green” home is part of the Power Smart Village, an environmentally focused site in downtown Vancouver open to the public every day of the Winter Games.
So-called “smart” or grid-enabled appliances carry energy from utilities to homes more efficiently, and they send data back to the utilities that can help manage electric power more wisely.
In areas where prices vary daily according to demand, the appliances can respond to signals from the utilities by shifting into power-saving modes or delaying operation until demand is lower.
“I think GE Profile Smart appliances will usher in a new revolution, a revolution in which these appliances will enable us to use energy more wisely and help reduce greenhouse gas emissions,” said James Campbell, GE Appliances and Lighting president and CEO, in a news release.
The Home of the Future was built from two recycled steel shipping containers, and it features other environmentally friendly elements such as vertical gardens on the exterior walls, high-efficiency windows, solar panels, recycled wood and energy-efficient lighting. It is expected to be open to the public through March 21.

India, Dividend, Oklahoma Wind Farm, Electric Vehicle Charging, and China Growth

GE Official: India Should Incentivize Manufacturing
India's tax regime often favors importing finished products rather than components and raw materials, and the Indian government needs to offer new incentives to stimulate homegrown manufacturing, a senior Indian official at General Electric Co. said Monday.
V. Raja, president and chief executive of GE Healthcare South Asia, said in an interview that the import tariff on finished goods that GE brings into India typically runs at about 10%. Because of the way the tariff structure works, the duty on the import of components or raw materials necessary for local manufacturing often amount to more than 10%.

GE's board of directors authorise USD0.10 quarterly dividend
The board of directors of General Electric Company on Friday authorised a regular quarterly dividend of USD0.10 per outstanding share of its common stock.
The dividend pay out will be made on 26 April 2010 to shareowners of record at the close of business on 1 March 2010. The ex-dividend date is 25 February 2010. 

GE to invest $65 mln in Oklahoma windfarm
GE Energy Financial Services, a unit of the General Electric Co. said Tuesday it will provide $65 million to fund construction of a wind farm near Woodward, Okla. The wind farm will be developed by CPV Renewable Energy Co., an affiliate of Competitive Power Venture Inc. The project is scheduled to be completed by year's end and will produce enough energy to power about 45,000 homes. In addition to the initial funding, GE will provide an option for $100 million more in partnership equity upon commencement of commercial operations. The total cost of the wind farm is projected to be $319 million, and will also be financed with a $212 million loan from The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi and Union Bank.

GE Links With Juice for Smart Electric Vehicle Charging
General Electric plans to get into smart charging for electric vehicles in a big way this year, and it’s partnering with 2-year-old Juice Technologies to do it. This morning the companies announced a joint development agreement to create charging devices that will integrate with GE’s smart meters and Juice’s Plug Smart intelligent charging system, helping drivers to juice up their batteries when power grid demands and electricity rates are lower (see our list of 10 Electric Car Smart Charging Players to Watch). According to today’s release, “initial” chargers under the agreement will roll out in the U.S. in the second quarter of this year, “with full-scale production ramping up throughout the year.” Down the road, GE and Juice are targeting global distribution.

According to Thomas Hurkmans, co-founder and chief financial officer for Juice, whose products carry the brand Plug Smart, today’s deal is exclusive. “Every time GE builds a smart charging system for electric vehicles,” he said, “it will be with us.” GE has agreed to work with Juice and finance the development and manufacturing of EV charging systems, which will be co-branded and “sold through multiple channels,” including GE’s network.

GE’s Rice Says China Isn’t Slowing; 750 Hires Planned
General Electric Co., the world’s biggest maker of jet engines and locomotives, said its businesses in China aren’t slowing down and the company will add about 750 salespeople in the country this year and more in 2011.

“Someday, the market in China is going to look like the market in the U.S., and we’ve got to be equipped with the resources to serve the market in the same way,” Vice Chairman John Rice, who oversees GE’s Technology Infrastructure segment, said today at the Barclays Capital Industrial Select Conference in Miami. “We think it’s critical to our success there.”
GE, which gets more than half of its sales outside the U.S., considers the benefits of operating in China outweighing the risks, such as intellectual property rules that aren’t ideal, Rice said. GE last year announced joint ventures to develop high-speed rail and avionics in the country that will create hundreds and preserve thousands of U.S. jobs, he said.