Korea's LG eyeing GE's appliance unit

Remember Goldstar, the inexpensive color televisions brand popular in the 1970s and '80s? Those televisions were manufactured by a South Korean firm called Lucky Goldstar, founded after WWII to make appliances and chemicals. Today, that company is known as LG, one of the largest conglomerates in the world, famous for its high quality phones and plasma televisions. And soon it may be the owner of General Electric's (NYSE: GE) appliance business.

GE announced two weeks ago that it might sell its appliance unit. BusinessWeek and The Wall Street Journal are reporting today that LG is watching the GE situation very carefully. GE wants to exit the appliance business due to intense price competition from manufacturers in Asia. The New York Times speculated that the transaction would be similar to IBM's sale of its computer brand to Lenovo a few years ago. The purchaser would have a few years to continue using the GE badge before going solo with its own brand.

Based in Kentucky with 13,000 employees, the appliance division is one of GE's oldest and a real piece of Americana. Founded in 1907, it invented a number of everyday products, including the room air-conditioner and the toaster oven. However, it suffers from low growth rates and contributed 'only' $7 billion to GE's revenue last year, out of $173 billion total. Analysts think it could bring in $5 billion in a sale.

GE has plenty of high growth businesses in transport, medical imaging and energy, so selling its appliance business makes sense in some calculations. But I don't know -- somehow buying a refrigerator or microwave won't be the same. Yet another chunk of American manufacturing muscle is being shipped overseas, and I wonder what the country will do when virtually all of its basic production capacity sits in other countries.