As expected, General Electric Co. (NYSE:GE) Chief Executive Jeffrey Immelt is starting to open up the company's checkbook.

The company said earlier this morning that it would buy the aerospace business of Smiths Group Plc. for $4.8 billion. GE and Smiths also will combine their homeland security units in a joint venture, Smiths GE Protection, that will be 64 percent owned by Smiths and chaired by its CEO Keith Butler-Wheelhouse, Bloomberg News reported.

General Electric, which doesn't expect this acquisition to face the same opposition as the Honeywell International merger did in 2000, is planning to make $7 billion in non-financial mergers this year, Bloomberg said.

So what's next on General Electric's shopping list? How about a nice little industrial concern? What about a promising medical technology startup, or something to boost NBC Universal? The point for investors though isn't where GE spends its money as much as how it does it.

Long before the annoying NBC program became a hit, General Electric perfected the game "Deal or No Deal." The Fairfield, Conn., company doesn't overpay for acquisitions and looks for deals that compliment existing businesses.

--Jonathan Berr is the editor of http://www.desperateinvestors.com