General Electric Company (NYSE: GE) has taken quite the tumble under current CEO Jeffrey Immelt -- down 74% from the $41 it traded at when he took over in September 2001.

But if you had backed up the truck and bought the shares at its 52-week low of $6.66 on March 4, you would be sitting on a 61% gain. And that hypothetical gain is improving -- GE stock is up 5.9% this morning -- thanks to an investor conference underway now (which I discussed last night on Marketplace) to disclose details of GE Capital (GECC) -- its finance unit.

GECC -- which makes loans for goods ranging from commercial real estate to heavy equipment purchases -- accounted for 33% of GE's operating profit -- or $8.6 billion in 2008. Now GE's CFO, Keith Sherin, thinks it will make money in 2009 as well. "We expected GE Capital to be profitable in the first quarter and we expect GE Capital to be profitable in 2009," according to Thomson Reuters. Specifically, Sherin thinks GECC will earn $5 billion -- down 42% from 2008.

General Electric Company (NYSE: GE) missed by a penny. But a look behind its corporate veil reveals a company that is not getting the so-called benefits of diversification. Instead, the great performance of one of its businesses is being overwhelmed by all the other businesses which are shrinking. My concern is what happens if that one business also takes a dive.

GE net income fell 44% to $3.65 billion and its earnings per share (EPS) from continuing operations was 36 cents -- analysts had expected 37. Here's the bad news:

• GE's financial-services business, GE Capital, made a profit of $383 million -- an 88% drop while its revenues fell 18%. Its CNBC cable channel reported that it would cut 7,000 jobs and save $2 billion.
  
• GE's consumer and industrial business suffered an 86% earnings decline as revenue fell 17%
• GE's television and movie network. NBC Universal suffered a 6.3% earnings decline while revenue slid 2.7% as declines at local stations -- presumably suffering from weak advertising demand -- were partially offset by strong cable earnings

Remember how admired General Electric (NYSE: GE) used to be? After its stock has tumbled 71% from its all-time high in 2000 of $58.13, I don't think people admire it much anymore. You may have missed that GE got $139 billion in loan guarantees from the FDIC a few weeks ago but nobody blinked an eyelash. Meanwhile today, GE is reporting more disappointing earnings news.

GE is shrinking its GE Capital unit, which in 2007 accounted for about 50% of its profit and sales. Next year GE plans to earn $9 billion from GE Capital, excluding a potential charge of $1 billion to $1.4 billion to speed up cost cuts there. Meanwhile, GE Capital will have lots of bad loans -- its provision is expected to rise from $7.2 billion in 2008 to $9 billion in 2009.

As a result, GE cut its overall earnings forecast for the fourth quarter from between 50 cents to 65 cents a share down to a range of 50 cents to 52 cents -- which is in line with the 51-cents average of 14 analysts' estimates. These days it is very hard to admire almost any company, and stock prices are reflecting that lack of admiration.

A lot of the attention over the weakness in GE's (NYSE:GE) stock has been due to the poor performance in its industrial unit and the cyclical nature of earnings at its NBC Universal entertainment business. But, like Wall Street firms, the real risks for the conglomerate's numbers could be in its financial and money divisions.

According to The Wall Street Journal, "Investors are worried about the value of assets held by GE Capital, which accounts for most of its borrowing and more than one-third of its profit."

GE shares fell to a five-and-a-half year low yesterday, bottoming at $24.60.

But, GE is an exceedingly complex company and focusing on its financial unit is only part of the story. The real engine of the firm's growth has been its infrastructure unit. This includes GE's aviation, health-care, energy, and natural resources operations. The current risk to those businesses is substantial.

GE has made a point of telling investors that the rapid improvement in its infrastructure earnings, especially due to growth in Asia, will help drive double digit revenue growth. The current damage to the world's financial markets and slowing economies in the West and Asia could undercut GE's forecasts.

GE's stock could go lower because of risks in all its units. The firm's financial businesses are only part of the picture.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.

Bloomberg News reports that General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE) has cut the number of its business units from six to four. This change in organization structure should trim its overhead. But it could make it more difficult for investors to compare GE's performance before the reorganization to how it's doing after the change in structure.

The key unresolved question is whether the new structure will boost GE's revenue and profit growth. Bloomberg reports that the four new units will be GE Technology Infrastructure, GE Energy Infrastructure, GE Capital and NBC Universal. GE formerly had six units -- Reuters reports that GE Health Care, which was one of the six former divisions, now falls under the new Technology Infrastructure unit. GE's $13 billion consumer and industrial businesses, which include washing machines and lighting, is not part of the new structure -- in 2009 GE wants to spin those businesses off to shareholders.

Bloomberg reports that in May, GE CEO Jeff Immelt said that he intends to change GE's product mix to about 60% non-financial by 2010 -- far more than it is today. In 2007, GE's finance-related businesses accounted for 44% of net income and 53% of profit from continuing operations. It is not clear whether the new organization structure will help revive GE's revenue and profit growth.

Before the dust has settled on the recent acquisition of Equity Office Property Trust, the Blackstone Group follows with an IPO that is projected to raise exactly the same amount of money that they contributed to the buyout, $4 billion - the rest is someone elses money or leverage. Coming out with this IPO after the Blackstone CEO recently called public markets overrated (as posted recently by Amey Stone) is ironic indeed.

Why have an IPO when you have not had a problem raising money in the past, and subject yourself to the requirements of a public company when you are already on record as finding this a nuisance at best? Could it be that you are thinking the public market is ripe for the picking? Is it possible given your disdain that you believe the public offering will raise more money than a private offering? Perhaps you believe selling 10% of the company to the public who's voice is diluted is preferable to a single entity holding 10% of the company and having a big say? Probably all of the above and millions in fees to go around as well. How much of the IPO is already spoken for with friends and family that were able to buy discounted shares?

So what's wrong with this IPO, absolutely nothing at all - just stop pretending, stop whining, and get on with it. If I over paid Sam Zell by so much I would start laying off the risk too. Both sides knew exactly what they were getting into. I hope buyers of the Blackstone shares do as well. A word of caution from the left coast. Out here another very shrewd commercial real estate tycoon sold off his real estate company. It was not long ago that Richard Ziman sold Arden Realty the largest owner of Southern California commercial office space to G.E. Capital.

Far be it from me to second guess the wisdom of two giants like Blackstone and GE, but as one that has looked at over a thousand properties in the last six months and only acquired one, I can testify that things are pretty pricey in the western states. Above all else, if Dick Ziman and Sam Zell are selling, I'm not sure I'm buying.

Sheldon Liber is the CEO of a small private investment company and the vice president for design and research at an architecture & planning firm. Check out his other posts for BloggingStocks here.

General Electric has a few news items this morning for investors to digest -- or ignore, as the case may be. None of it looks very major. It's just the usual mix of deal talk and and legal wrangling. Here's the headlines:

- A South African firm, Sanlam, is in talks with GE to buy its U.K. life insurance business. Sanlam later confirmed that was true, but called talks "embryonic."

- GE Capital and Arden Capital Realty have agreed to settle class action law suits filed by shareholders who protested terms of their pending merger. GE's real estate group is buying Arden for about $5 million, plus assuming its debt.

GE's stock opens this morning at $33.97 and I doubt this news will have much impact, although I think both are mild postives for GE.