Posted on 05/25/2018 9:03:43 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
It’s a bad day for a CEO when he announces he’s retiring and the stock goes up. That was Jeff Immelt’s day on June 12, 2017. The news of his departure was in one sense no surprise—some investors and analysts had been urging his ouster for years;but it was also a shock.
He’d been General Electric’s CEO for almost 16 years, and outsiders were unaware of any specific succession plans or that Immelt, at age 61, had any intention of stepping down. Suddenly they were told that in just seven weeks he’d be gone as CEO (he remained nonexecutive board chairman an additional two months), to be succeeded by John Flannery, head of GE’s health care business and 30-year employee. Investors didn’t need long to decide this was good news. The market was flat that day, but they bid GE stock up 4%.
Their optimism was at best premature. The stock closed at $28.94 on June 12 and has not reached that price since. As economies boomed worldwide and U.S. stock indexes soared, GE has collapsed in a meltdown that has destroyed well over $100 billion of shareholder wealth. Pounded by a nonstop barrage of bad news, investors are traumatized and disoriented. “They just can’t figure it out and don’t want to invest,” says analyst Nicholas Heymann of William Blair & Co. “This isn’t like surveying the landscape. It’s spelunking with no lights and no manual.” Analyst Scott Davis of Melius Research says some investors have become permanently disillusioned: “Many have told us they will never own GE again.”
Retirees and employees who bought heavily into the stock are furious; some picketed GE’s annual meeting in April. Former executives are dumbfounded. “It’s unfathomable,” says one. “You couldn’t possibly dream this up. It’s crazy.” After all, this is GE, corporate aristocrat,
(Excerpt) Read more at fortune.com ...
Well they don’t just make washer and dyers anymore.
Trump must have stopped giving them free taxpayer money
They got woke and are going broke.
Did somebody “shrug?”
I have dealt with GE companies.
I would rather deal with the Russian Mafia. They are at least more honest.
GE’s model is nuts. Firing bottom 10% every year, then hiring them back as consultants.
GE used to be my favorite brand for appliances and electronics because of their quality and long-lived products. I was never disappointed.
What happened?
“What happened?”
If I recall, a few years back they moved their radiology manufacturing unit from Wisconsin to China. That started the downfall.
Jack Welch actually started the downfall of GE when he decided that the people he shuffled around the various businesses didn’t need to know those businesses.
Considering the time indicated in this statement, and the chart you provided, something is incorrect. Mid-way through 2017, the stock took a nose dive. Which, as far as I can remember, is the opposite of going up.
GE is too big for any single CEO to manage. They have also paid the price for their success, NYS sued them and won billions and forced them to dredge the Hudson for PCB’s. Environmental laws have cost them multiple billions, they lost their way like many BIG companies...Digital Equipment, Eastman Kodak, Bear Stearns, EF Hutton, the list is long.
Crony capitalism only works when your cronies are in power.
CEO Jeff Imelt was a notorious Obama crony and toady.
I believe that he did help get the Chinese Nuclear power industry up and running during his tenure, even if it did destroy the company.
GE made the BIG OBAMA BET! They turned their whole business model around to align with all of Obama’s priorities and of course they were supposed to benefit from all of Obama’s regulations. In reality they tried to play the Oligarchy Game and lost big time.
GE <> at their peak with Ronald Reagan as their spokesman.
https://www.ge.com/reports/ronald-reagan-ge/
GE no longer brings good things to life.
BO’B and the establishment cabal succeeded in bringing this company to its knees. They are the experts of destruction.
GE got dependent on crony-capitalism. Major investments in wind turbine business unit. Profitable until the subsidies dry up.
Trying to do business with them has always been daunting. I have always felt there is a corrupt nature to all of their dealings. They got in a hurry for a multi=million dollar lamp warehouse one time. I bid it and was awarded the contract. Built it and could never get any feedback on further opportunities.
They had no warranty, satisfaction or quality issues — their attitude was “we don’t need anyone.”
Later with a much larger company, I did some pre-qualification paperwork and it was one giant submission after another with no feed-back or questions. I finally decided it was a stall and that GE staff was taking payoffs from buddies and interviewing the market just to have stuff in their filing cabinets.
They probably made too many WHITE appliances.
Jack Welch was a piss poor manager. I saw first hand how his decisions screwed up the power division. As long as the markups could cover incompetent management screw ups, they were gold. Eventually markets caught up with them.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.