Slowly, piece by piece, the inside details of what happened during the financial meltdown are coming to light. The latest disclosure is that JPMorgan Chase (JPM) CEO Jamie Dimon and General Electric (GE) CEO Jeffrey Immelt were on the New York Federal Reserve Board in 2008, when their institutions got enormous loans, as reported by the New York Times.

This little story tells you just how the insiders do their wheeling and dealing. On Sept. 15, JPMorgan Chase received a $3 billion loan from the Fed. On 12 occasions in October and November 2008, GE issued short term IOUs. The Fed purchased $16 billion of them.

Continue reading JPMorgan and GE Got Massive Fed Loans While Their CEOs Sat on NY Fed Board

JPMorgan and GE Got Massive Fed Loans While Their CEOs Sat on NY Fed Board originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 06 Dec 2010 09:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading General Electric to Energize Electric Car Market

General Electric to Energize Electric Car Market originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 11 Nov 2010 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Short and sweet -- General Electric (GE) reported higher profits on slower sales with a positive outlook.

The company reported earnings of $3.2 billion, with EPS of 29 cents, up 32% from the third quarter of 2009. This is the second quarter (oh boy, a streak!) GE increased orders, displaying continuing-earnings growth. Revenue was $35.9 billion for the quarter, down 5% on lower equipment sales and reduced GE Capital assets. GE expects fourth-quarter 2010 Industrial revenues to grow sequentially from third quarter and to be about flat with the year-ago period.

Continue reading Chasing Value: GE Reports -- Good News, Finally?

Chasing Value: GE Reports -- Good News, Finally? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 15 Oct 2010 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

NBC Universal, which recently was the subject of a proposed transaction between General Electric (GE) and Comcast (CMCSA), is having a serious problem with The Jay Leno Show. It's not performing well in the ratings. But wait, there's more, as a typical infomercial narrator might intone: The Tonight Show isn't faring any better under the aegis of Conan O'Brien.

Worse, the issues with the 10 PM Leno programming asset go beyond just his ratings. The show is exerting a negative halo effect over the local newscasts. If you don't have a strong lead-in, then the content that follows will suffer.

Continue reading The Leno/O'Brien Puzzle: What Should NBC Do?

The Leno/O'Brien Puzzle: What Should NBC Do? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 08 Jan 2010 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Many retail investors have been shrieking as General Electric (GE) hovers around ten year lows and has gone nowhere all year while almost everything else has appreciated. GE is on hot lists and not lists for 2010.

It is one of my holdover picks from 2009 and if it does not improve in the next few days will be my only loser -- for the other, a winner, see: Chasing Value: 2010 -- #3 EZCORP.

Continue reading Chasing Value: 2010 -- #6 General Electric

Chasing Value: 2010 -- #6 General Electric originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 30 Dec 2009 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

General Electric's (GE) chief executive visited France this week, making what some are calling a "last-ditch bid" to acquire the transmission and distribution arm of Areva, a state-owned French company.

Immelt spent some time with two of the closest advisors to French president Nicolas Sarkozy, hoping to convince Sarkozy to ignore political pressure and realize the benefits of GE's $6 billion offer. The French government is rather adamant about keeping the domestic company home, asking a pairing of two French companies (Schneider Electric and Alstom) to rework their initial bid, which was the lowest.

Continue reading General Electric's Immelt talks to the French government about Areva

General Electric's Immelt talks to the French government about Areva originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 27 Nov 2009 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

If you are not reading the commentary we receive then you are missing some gems. One of our regulars reminded me of something "my pal Warren" said: "... find companies which can be run by idiots because sooner or later an idiot will be running it."

In Buffett's case he can actually call them up and talk to them. In many cases, he could probably get them to resign. For most of us, all we know is basic things like how's the stock price or has the idiot been indicted?

Continue reading Is an idiot running your company?

Is an idiot running your company? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 08 Sep 2009 12:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Chasing Value: Blaming GE's Immelt for what?

Chasing Value: Blaming GE's Immelt for what? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 02 Sep 2009 15:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Almost without fail if I write something about General Electric Company (NYSE: GE), or even mention the company in passing, someone will add a comment that its CEO, Jeffrey Immelt, has overstayed his welcome at the company and he has to go.

Here are a few samples:

• "Why is Jeff Immelt still employed by GE? he has ruined the company and cares nothing about his shareholders. He and his board need to go empty handed."

Continue reading Sunday Funnies: What is Jeffrey Immelt doing wrong?

Sunday Funnies: What is Jeffrey Immelt doing wrong? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sun, 15 Mar 2009 14:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Recently, Zac Bissonnette took Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) and its press-release wizards to task for essentially issuing a document that was full of spin but low on substance. This was in regard to Amazon having its "best Christmas ever." I'm sure you've heard about it. Well, I was looking at an article yesterday that talked about some box-office numbers from General Electric's (NYSE: GE) Universal Pictures asset. I kind of got the same feeling about the numbers as Zac did about the Amazon Christmas thing.

Of course, keep in mind, the article I was looking at was not a press release. Still, the execs at NBC Universal are surely pretty proud about the numbers. After all, they are supposed to be best-ever stats. On the domestic side of things, Universal achieved a total box-office gross of approximately $1.1 billion.

On the international front, the studio brought in $1.7 billion. The year-over-year growth rate was flat for domestic theaters, and for international theaters, the company saw a robust 66% increase. Personally, I'm not impressed. To begin with, domestic was flat, and that's not good. And as for international, well, there was no context in terms of the effects of currency rates.

Plus, does it really matter if a studio is achieving high grosses? There's never any comment about profits and losses on specific titles, compensation structures for the stars, etc. To me, this data doesn't say a lot (admittedly, I'll never be satisfied with the amount of disclosure that studios are required to give on their movie projects).

The article mentions two films as drivers for the year that, in my opinion, underperformed in the domestic marketplace: The Incredible Hulk, based on the Marvel (NYSE: MVL) character, and the latest sequel in the Mummy franchise. The latter barely made it over the $100 million mark, and the former only grossed a little better than $130 million. Big deal. You would have figured that Universal could have squeezed some more box-office bucks out of these properties.

Many on Wall Street believe that GE should rid itself of NBC Universal. I'm not one of them, but I concede that Universal Pictures needs to do better. Seriously, Universal Pictures did okay, but not great, in '08. I sincerely hope that CEO Jeffrey Immelt does not allow the studio to rest on these laurels. That would be a shame, and a slap in the face to shareholders.

Disclosure: I own GE; positions can change without notice.

Universal Pictures had a great year -- does it matter? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 02 Jan 2009 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

General Electric (NYSE: GE) CEO Jeffrey Immelt is a hard man to pin down. He speaks in generalities, and what he says often does not turn out to be true. He has made sweeping comments about how well the company will do providing infrastructure services to countries like India and China. How often does he give a precise update on how that is going?

Now Immelt is talking about cutting costs and expenses at GE. According to The Wall Street Journal (subscription required), in an interview yesterday he said, "Costs will be lower in 2009 than in 2008. That will be true across the board." He offered the observation that the cuts would include employees. How many? No one knows, and he is not saying.

Usually when a chief executives says his company will cut people, he either says how many or what percentage of the workforce it will be. That is not the case here. Immelt is keeping that to himself.

What is more remarkable than the man's reticence is the fact that the company did not move sooner. GE's results have been more modest that people would like The third quarter numbers were down right troubling. GE must have seen that coming. Where were the layoffs of thousands of people back then?

Hard to say. Immelt is cagey.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 24/7 Wall St.

Even General Electric will cut costs originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sat, 25 Oct 2008 09:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

GE matches reduced expectation and people cheer originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 10 Oct 2008 10:55:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

• Appliances
• Aviation
• Consumer Electronics
• Electrical Distribution
• Energy
• Finance - Business
• Finance - Consumer
• Health-care
• Lighting
• Media & Entertainment
• Oil & Gas
• Rail
• Security
• Water

Continue reading Serious Money: GE should focus on water and power

Serious Money: GE should focus on water and power originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 12 Jun 2008 15:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Lately, I've been hearing a lot of chatter about General Electric (NYSE: GE) and its NBC Universal asset (here's one example). Specifically, there's been talk about the future of the movie and television business and its role as a productive member of the GE portfolio. There are a lot of pundits out there who would like to see it sold off; probably a lot of investors would like that, too. Thankfully, CEO Jeffrey Immelt isn't one of them; he has consistently and steadfastly denied that NBC Universal will be offered to buyers in the near future. I hope he retains such opinion, because I definitely think GE needs NBC Universal.

Sure, GE needs to sell things from time to time, the latest example being the conglomerate's desire to dump its appliance division (Peter Cohan agreed with this logic and recently wrote a piece about the subject). But it shouldn't get rid of NBC Universal. Ever. Well, maybe there might be some compelling event in the future that would justify a sale, but I really don't see that happening. Why? Because content is valuable, and GE needs to own a piece of it.

We live in exciting times. The media is changing. New distribution paradigms, driven by digital technologies, are forming all the time. Libraries of films and television shows are going to be valuable well into the future. Think about Universal and its film library. The Mummy, Jurassic Park, E.T., The Bourne Ultimatum, Jaws...you get the picture. NBC Universal will be able to monetize all these franchises and many, many more from the library, as well as ones that have yet to be produced, via the new digital economy.

Continue reading General Electric should not sell NBC Universal

General Electric should not sell NBC Universal originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sat, 24 May 2008 12:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

USA Today reports that oil billionaire T. Boone Pickens is placing a $2 billion bet on wind power. Pickens' Mesa Power plans to build the Pampa Wind Project in the Texas Panhandle. It will eventually cover 400,000 acres and generate enough power for more than 1.3 million homes -- making it the largest wind farm in the world.

And Pickens is helping General Electric Company (NYSE: GE) in the bargain. That's because he's buying GE turbine technology. GE is expected to deliver 667, 1.5-megawatt wind turbines in 2010 and 2011. Jeffrey Immelt, GE Chairman and CEO said, "As America's demand for energy escalates, it is clear that wind can and will play a bigger part in meeting that need. We're excited to partner with an energy visionary like T. Boone Pickens to bring our wind technology to the marketplace."

With oil hitting $127 a barrel, I hope this project is the first of many. It will take many different sources of alternative energy to reduce U.S. demand for black gold. Wind power is certainly a good alternative. And if Pickens and GE get richer in the process, that's fine by me.

Peter Cohan is president of Peter S. Cohan & Associates, a management consulting and venture capital firm. He also teaches management at Babson College and edits The Cohan Letter. He owns GE shares.

T. Boone Pickens wagers $2 billion on wind power originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 16 May 2008 16:49:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

AP reports that General Electric Company (NYSE: GE) CEO Jeff Immelt did quite a bit of whining at today's shareholder meeting in Erie, PA. But he did announce one piece of news that might help GE's stock: GE will increase its planned cost cutting from $2 billion to $3 billion. Yet I think he's still smarting from Jack Welch's threat to shoot Immelt on GE's CNBC last week.

Immelt whined on two fronts: the tough economy and how his buying and selling of GE business units is not appreciated. Here's what he said about the economy: "We are in the toughest economy since 2001 and the worst housing crisis since the Depression. Banks have written off more than $250 billion. . . . Days of easy credit have turned into months of no credit at all. While I am confident about the economy long term, we could see even more difficult times ahead."

And on the matter of GE's portfolio, Immelt exuded self-pity as he assailed his audience: "I would ask people to keep something in mind. In the last five or six years I've sold 50 or $60 billion of business. I've acquired 70 or $80 billion of business. This has probably been the most active portfolio change in the history of the company and it would be hard to find another industrial company that's done anything close to what we've done."

Continue reading GE's Immelt reduced to whining after homicidal rant from Jack Welch

GE's Immelt reduced to whining after homicidal rant from Jack Welch originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 23 Apr 2008 13:04:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading General Electric's Jeff Immelt isn't changing a thing

General Electric's Jeff Immelt isn't changing a thing originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 22 Apr 2008 16:53:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

James Hardesty of Hardesty Capital Management, which owns shares in GE, was quoted on Bloomberg TV as saying, "Immelt now has to be put in the penalty box."

Peter Sorrentino, a senior portfolio manager at Huntington Asset Advisors in Cincinnati, which owns more than six million GE shares, argues that analysts and the GE board need to look at Immelt's plans very carefully."The time has come for greater scrutiny of Immelt," said Sorrentino on Bloomberg Radio. "It's really incumbent on the board to ask tougher questions now. The board needs to ask, 'Are we really headed in the right direction? Yes, the Infrastructure business is going very well; let's make sure that we're not blowing it on the other side'."

GE's Immelt 'in the penalty box'? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 15 Apr 2008 13:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

CNNMoney reports that General Electric Company (NYSE: GE) missed earnings expectations by a mile. Its net income fell 12% to $4.4 billion, or 44 cents per share, seven cents less than what Thomson Financial's polling of analysts had estimated.

In February I analyzed GE's breakup value and concluded that the stock was probably a bit overvalued. The big problem with today's earnings announcement was GE's financial services unit. Like Wall Street banks, GE suffered from "extraordinary disruption in the capital markets in March [which] affected our ability to complete asset sales and resulted in higher mark-to-market losses and impairments."

But that's not all. GE missed on revenues and lowered its guidance. Sales rose 8% to $42.2 billion, $1.5 billion below analysts' forecast of $43.7 billion. GE lowered its full year guidance to between $2.20 and $2.30 per share, reflecting flat to 5% growth. GE is down 11% in pre-market.

Since its current CEO, Jeff Immelt took over in September 2001, GE stock has fallen 20% from $41 to $33. Remind me again of why the "great" Jack Welch chose Immelt to succeed him.

Peter Cohan is President of Peter S. Cohan & Associates. He also teaches management at Babson College and edits The Cohan Letter. He owns GE shares.

GE brings bad things to Wall Street originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 11 Apr 2008 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

The New York Times reports that General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE) sponsored a webcast yesterday with its CEO, Jeff Immelt, to answer questions submitted by the general public. Immelt denied that its NBC Universal unit was for sale while answering questions from Carl Quintanilla and a co-host of the Squawk Box program on CNBC, and Chrystia Freedland, the United States managing editor of The Financial Times.

A few disclosures are in order: GE invited me to participate in this webcast but I had a prior commitment. I met last July with GE's CFO -- where he said that NBC Universal was worth between $40 billion and $45 billion. I've appeared on CNBC with Quintanilla, most recently as guest host of Squawk Box. And I own GE stock and am not a happy camper since it's trading 13% below where it was on September 10, 2001 when Immelt took over. The S&P 500 has risen 21% since then.

Is Immelt right that GE is undervalued? I took a look at that question and concluded that it was slightly overvalued on February 27th. Specifically, I calculated a range of breakup values for GE which were between 11.1% and 1.5% less below GE's current market capitalization. I could be wrong about that analysis since I was compounding assumptions on assumptions and had no guidance on the analysis from GE.

Continue reading GE needs new message, not new medium

GE needs new message, not new medium originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 14 Mar 2008 09:43:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.