General Electric Company (NYSE: GE) has a long, long way to go before attaining its 2000 high of $60 per share. This company has vastly under performed the markets, its peer group and any other measuring stick investors want to use. GE was a glamorous stock in the 1980's and 1990's under the watchful eye of CEO guru Jack Welch. He may have gotten out just in time!!

General Electric does suffer from the laws of large numbers.With a $400 billion market capitalization and a revenue run-rate this year of $175 billion, growing this beast is like moving the mountain. Actually, moving the mountain might be easier!. CEO Jeffrey Immelt, a lifer at GE, was hand-picked by Jack Welch back in early 2001, and Immelt took the reigns in late 2001, just after 9-11. His mission is formidable and onerous as GE flourished under Welch. Immelt's tenure has been marred by an under-performing company with a similar under-performing stock. Many shareholders and analysts, including yours truly, have done the back-of-the-envelope analysis and can say that GE broken up into various public units is worth more than $50 per share. The stock is currently at $39.15, a good 20-25% below break up value.

I have argued that breaking up GE would be good for the shareholders and its employees. New CEOs and boards of directors for the separate entities would bring new ideas, fresh perspectives and individual company expectations. GE is not only an American company, but a global giant. GE has operations and sell its products world wide.

General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE) Chief Executive Jeff Immelt's has given Jeff Zucker plenty of chances to improve NBC Universal. Now, it's time for someone else to run the media conglomerate.

Though NBC's performance is showing signs of improvement, it continues to be one of the laggards in the GE portfolio. Investors are clamoring for the Fairfield, Conn.-based company to spin-off or sell the media conglomerate. NBC prime time ratings are stagnant and still overly dependent on the "Law and Order" franchise. While I am a huge fan of "Scrubs" and "My Name is Earl," I realize that the quirky humor of those sitcoms may not appeal to everyone.

Yesterday, Zucker reshuffled the top management at NBC, ousting programming head Kevin Reilly and replacing him with with Ben Silverman and Mark Graboff. Maybe Zucker thought Reilly, whose contract was recently extended, was working too hard. I'm surprised that Zucker didn't escape the axe himself.

Indeed, anytime a company fills a job that one person did with two or more people, that's a bad sign. It's a recipe for instability and will guarantee turf battles between high-powered executives. However, this does allow Zucker the chance to spread blame around to more people when things go wrong or don't go right fast enough.

All of a sudden several portfolio managers I have worked with these past 16 years are getting interested again in General Electric (NYSE: GE). The subject of GE has surfaced at some investor conferences and the sharks may be circling the tank. So what's causing all the renewed interest in GE as it has underperformed these past five to six years?

That's exactly what has caused the interest in GE: its underperformance. I have written extensively these past three months about GE's obligation to maximize shareholder value. Either grow the company to satisfactory levels and have the stock perform or begin the process of evaluating the break up value of GE. The recently announced sale of its plastics/chemical division for over $411 billion was a good start.

Now there are indications the company is taking aggressive executive action at its laggard media property NBC/Universal. The executive changes at NBC are in hopes of raising the ratings going forward and of course calming the nerves of the major advertisers. One portfolio manager I have known for years, who runs a $10 billion growth fund has begun to add GE shares to his portfolio. He had 200,000 shares and is raising the exposure to one million shares. His reasoning is CEO Jeffrey Immelt has this year and possibly next to raise the profile and share price.

General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE), Gentleman's C CEO Jeff Immelt, is close to selling GE Plastics to Saudi Arabia's largest public company, the Saudi Basic Industries Corporation. You'll remember Saudi Arabia as the supplier of 15 of the 19 9/11 mass murderers.

But Immelt is going to collect $11 billion and dump an under- performing unit where both he and his predecessor Jack Welch worked. Competition and price increases in raw materials have squeezed profit margins, even though GE Plastics increased product prices. For 2006, the division reported $6.6 billion in revenue -- about the same as in 2005 and its profit fell 22% to $674 million.

The deal raises national security concerns but investors seem to like it a little -- GE is up 1% in early trading.

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.

General Electric's (NYSE: GE) Jeff Immelt just made the inference during a CNBC interview that GE will not be showing any interest in Dow Jones (NYSE: DJ) and implied that it is not going to jettison its NBC media unit. There have been many reports that both would or could occur, and this last interview should put both issues to bed.

This is actually good news if you prefer the safety of a conglomerate in a slower economy. If you prefer only smaller growth stocks, then you have many other choices. It really boils down to your investor preference, but GE has safety in diversity and has built itself up over the better half of the last century. I have previously noted that a break-up would be a bad idea in the recent past and stand by that.

Immelt said in the interview the equivalent of "we have no interest at all in acquiring Dow Jones." He noted the newspaper business as not for them and also said he has respect for Rupert Murdoch and News Corp (NYSE: NWS), but any speculation left at all that Immelt or GE was interested in Dow Jones probably just got shot out the window.

Also he noted that GE wants to keep NBC and is happy with it. He noted once again that it would sell a business if someone else can run it better, but he noted that he expects to see double-digit growth at the end of the year in the unit. He also noted the upcoming Olympic coverage. So this is keeping that door open down the road but will kill any such speculation in the near-term.

Jon Ogg is a partner at 24/7 Wall St.; he does not own securities in the companies he covers.

A few days ago I wrote that General Electric Co. (NYSE:GE) was at a bargain price with decent growth in front of it. This morning, Jeff Immelt, GE's CEO announced the sale of GE's investment in Swiss Re, a large insurance concern. But he also took the occasion to re-affirm the first quarter outlook of $0.43-0.45 earnings per share and endorsed the growth rate and analysts numbers for calender 2007.

This in itself is a huge vote of confidence to the market. GE and other large companies have been reticent to endorse whole year's numbers in the past 5 years. It has been a communication game of quarter to quarter. The fact that Jeff Immelt endorsed 2007 means he and his management team are seeing a lot of visibility in GE's various business units.

The other statement that will give comfort to analysts and investors is GE selling non-strategic investments and re-investing the proceeds into core business units. This strategy allows for organic growth within the company's core competencies.

With earnings per share expectations of $2.20-2.23 for 2007, GE is trading at a P/E of 15x with a 3.2% dividend yield. Sounds like GE is bringing good things to life.

Georges Yared is the author of "Stop Losing Money Today" and "Baby Boomer Investing...Where do we go from here?"

Yesterday's departure of Citigroup, Inc. (NYSE: C) executive Todd Thomson may have been helped along by his use of Citigroup's corporate jet to fly General Electric Company's (NYSE: GE) CNBC reporter, Maria Bartiromo from Asia. This is just the tip of the iceberg. Todd & Maria-gate Memo will follow the ongoing saga.

This morning's Wall Street Journal [subscription required] reports that Todd Thomson used $5 million of his Citigroup marketing budget to finance a Sundance Channel program which was slated to be hosted by Robert Redford and Maria Bartiromo. [Bartiromo is no longer slated to host this program].

But wait, there's more. In 2005, current Chief Operating Officer Bob Druskin spotted Thomson having dinner with Bartiromo at the ritzy Daniel restaurant while Druskin was hosting a holiday dinner there for his investment banking management team.

Last November, Thomson flew Bartiromo to speak to Citigroup's private-banking clients at luncheons in Hong Kong and Shanghai. He flew with a group of Citigroup employees to Asia, but flew back to the U.S. on the corporate jet with Bartiromo.

After this November incident, Citigroup CEO, Chuck Prince, asked Thomson to stop spending Citigroup money on Bartiromo. Six weeks later, Thomson surprised Prince with The Sundance sponsorship announcement. This prompted Thomson's departure.

This saga raises questions of interest to Citigroup and GE investors, including:

• After all of Prince's blunders, are Citigroup directors debating his fate?
• Was GE CEO, Jeff Immelt, involved in approving Bartiromo's $48,000 flight from Asia on Citigroup's jet?
• Will GE require CNBC anchors to disclose their business relationships with the companies they cover?

Peter Cohan is President of Peter S. Cohan & Associates, a management consulting and venture capital firm, a Professor of Management at Babson College, and editor of The Cohan Letter. He has appeared as a guest on CNBC and owns Citigroup and GE stock.

One of the world's largest companies, General Electric Company (NYSE:GE), will be acquiring some of the medical diagnostics business of Abbott Laboratories for $8.13 billion in cash, according to both companies as as late last week.

What does this move give GE? It will deeply increase the importance GE has been placing recently on its health care business, which right now is pegged at a $16 billion figure for GE annually.

GE CEO Jeff Immelt said the acquisition is "consistent with GE's strategy to invest in high-technology global infrastructure businesses that deliver strong top-line growth, earnings expansion and expanded margins." Easy enough said.

Abbott's partial sale to GE will net the company about $6 billion in after-tax cash according to the company, which will use the money primarily to pay down debt and supplement share repurchases.

I rattled some cages by pulling back the curtain on General Electric (NYSE: GE). I did that for good reason. The way I see it, there are going to be some significant readjustments in the markets starting early next year. The heady upward spiral we've been watching just can't go on forever. I'm sorry I have to make that call but that's the way I see it. Values have to equalize sometime. Overvaluations need to recede and correct. I'm thinking it's time now to pull some profit, take a stance, and brace yourself for a bit of a downward ride.

That's why I'm so high on GE. In my view there's no better place to shore up some funds. In fact, I have heard of GE as being referred to as a marvelous hedge of protection when times get volatile. It sure looks that way to me. In his recent statement to investors, GE chairman and CEO Jeff Immelt made his declaration of his company's strategic position clear and strong. Consistent growth, responsible investment, conservative diversification, and quality people, these are the things which Mr. Immelt banks on. This one handy quote from CEO Immelt puts GE's performance for 2006 into a nice sturdy package:

"The year is going to be a good year. Revenue will be $163 billion, up 10%. Earnings will be $20.5 billion, up 12%. Earnings per share up 15 or 16%. Cash flow at $25 billion, up 15%. Two point expansion and return on total capital and a pretty attractive segment profile. If you look across the company, really the only business that is turnaround mode is NBC Universal."

This post is written as part of AOL Money & Finance's Best & Worst 2006. Vote for Bob Nardelli or check out the other overpaid CEOs.

Former General Electric Company (NYSE: GE) executive Bob Nardelli lost out to Jeff Immelt in the race to succeed Jack Welch as CEO. And The Home Depot Inc. (NYSE: HD) shareholders would have been better off if Nardelli had repotted himself elsewhere.

Since Nardelli joined Home Depot as CEO in December 2000, HD is down 40% compared to a 120% increase for competitor Lowe's Companies Inc. (NYSE: LOW). In the last five years, Home Depot's revenue grew at a 12.3% compound annual growth rate to $90.1 billion and its net income increased at a 17.7% annual rate to $6.1 billion -- not bad, but a far cry from Lowe's 18.2% revenue growth and 27.8% profit growth during the same period.

And all this inferior performance at Home Depot would not be so bad if Nardelli weren't so egregiously overpaid. He received roughly $30 million in 2005, almost six times the $5.5 million that Robert Niblock, Lowe's CEO, took home in 2005.

Investors in the market for bargain CEOs should stay away from Home Depot.

Peter Cohan is President of Peter S. Cohan & Associates, a management consulting and venture capital firm, and a Professor of Management at Babson College. He owns GE stock and has no financial interest in Home Depot or Lowe's.

General Electric Company (NYSE: GE) has a webcast of the one hour long webcast done this morning at 8:30am. It covers GE's 3rd Quarter Financial Report and their 4th Quarter outlook. Here is a summary of the webcast.

Jeff Immelt comes on and reviews that it was a strong quarter for GE. Their environment is solid, global infrastructure spending is up, emerging market growth is strong, and the US consumer is strong. Inflation and interest rate are there, but are factored in. Plastics hasn't been able to offset inflation, however. GE is looking to improve on that next year. Again, the overall environment is very strong for GE.

There are five key performance metrics, and all of them show improvement and growth. Revenue was up, assets were up, earnings per share were up, return on capital was up, and margins were all up.

GE's long term strategy, Jeff Immelt reiterated, was to build great business. Infrastructure segment was up, NBC is rebounding, and Jeff expects NBC to show positive growth in the fourth quarter. Profit growth was up around the company, and NBC was mentioned again, this time pointing out that their primetime ratings were up 15%. Across GE orders were up 15%, organic growth is up for the 3rd quarter in a row, and service growth was up as well.

Growth is a big push inside the company, and GE has enjoyed seven quarters in a row of growth at 2-3X GDP thanks to technology and services. Aviation has a big backlog. The imagination breakthroughs are delivering growth and products. Global growth is up, and growth in developing countries is up 22%.

At this point Jeff Immelt hands off the webcast to Keith, who starts delving into the nitty gritty.

GE ended the day at $35.48, up 14 cents or .40%. GE today announced a $650 million deal with the nation of Kazakhstan to supply locomotives to the country. Again, with GE one must remember that GE gets more than the initial sale, but service contracts down the road to service the locomotive fleets it sells.

GE's Jeff Immelt is also getting some props from Motley Fool for being a great manager. Motley Fool's Tim Beyers points out that Immelt has grown GE's net income by some 12% annually, an impressive amount for such a large company. Dividends have also grown from $0.72 to an estimated $1.00 this year.

Every time we write a critical post about Time Warner or Microsoft, or expose a negative fact, rumor or analysis, the refrain renews: fire the CEO! Dick Parsons, that lucky guy, gets the brunt of our readers' anger. He's screwing up Time Warner, you've told us time and time again, he should go. So say you of Microsoft's Steve Ballmer, he of the explosive personality, sweaty armpits, and billions in inexplicable operating expenses. Sometimes it's Jeff Immelt of GE, or even well-loved figures like Meg Whitman of eBay.

But usually, it's Dick. Today is no different. With 2nd quarter earnings coming out next Wednesday, and everyone wondering about the company's plans with its AOL unit, Joan Lappin from Gramercy Capital Management demands in the pages of Fortune, "Save Time Warner, Fire Parsons."

It's nothing new, but it's worth evaluating her reasons for the radical battle cry. She argues that Parsons is all about politics (in fact, he's rumored to be angling for a 2009 run for New York City mayor), a skill that helped him avoid perishing in the "shark tank" that has been Time Warner's boardroom for the past decade and earned him credit as being a "Teflon Don," but has failed miserably to maintain Time Warner's legacy as a creative, entrepreneurial culture where good managers were rewarded "generous financial incentives for producing solid earnings growth." Fire Parsons, she says, and maybe that creative culture can be revived.

I honor her passion, and agree that the creative, entrepreneurial company always wins over the political shark tank. But who, Joan, is positioned to take the helm from him? That question must be answered before anyone brings out a block and starts chopping.

GE ended the day up at $32.46, a second day of positive movement with a very strong 15 or so cent leap at the end of the day, a spike no doubt due to the announcement of a 20 year, $1 billion contract to service Cathay Pacific jet engines.

This is a very nice plum for GE Aviation. As CEO Jeff Immelt noted in the earnings report, while GE makes a profit on the building and selling of engines of all sorts, it is the service contracts that often will contribute in a solid way to the bottom line at any given division of the conglomerate's industrial divisions. GE Aviation will be taking care of all Cathay Pacific's Boeing 777 aircraft with the GE-90 engines on them.

GE's CEO, Jeff Immelt, just bounced a $2,000 check he gave to a fundraiser, and the story is getting passed around various websites and newspapers. It has got to be tough to be a star, politician, or high-profile CEO where every stupid little thing you do is pounced upon by those who follow you around analyzing your every single move.

In this NY Times article about Jeff's little oops, it is pointed out that many wealthy people don't pay attention to the little details that regular people do. Like making sure your account is current or has enough money to pass a check. While the article is written in joking fashion, it does evoke a response in me. Though I do sympathize with Jeff's awkward position, being under the public scrutiny of the press and shareholders, it's the little things that always trip the big people and the big companies up. It's that little invention that changes things from the ground up. It's the suggestion by the guy on the line. It's an attention to detail that is important.

Can we really trust in a CEO that doesn't understand his own financial position to a point that he bounces a check?