General Electric
One Financial Center, the final headquarters of General Electric in Boston, Massachusetts. | |
| Company type | Public |
|---|---|
| ISIN | US3696043013 (2021–2024) |
| Industry | Conglomerate |
| Predecessors |
|
| Founded | April 15, 1892 in Schenectady, New York, US |
| Founders | |
| Defunct | April 2, 2024 |
| Fate | Dissolved; assets dispersed to three independent, publicly traded companies |
| Successors | |
| Headquarters | One Financial Center, Boston, Massachusetts , United States |
Area served | Worldwide |
Key people |
|
| Revenue | US$68 billion (2023) |
| US$9 billion (2023) | |
| US$9 billion (2023) | |
| Total assets | US$163 billion (2023) |
| Total equity | US$29 billion (2023) |
Number of employees | 125,000 (2023) |
| Subsidiaries | |
| Website | www |
| Footnotes / references | |
| 1912 | Universal Pictures is founded |
|---|---|
| 1926 | NBC is founded |
| 1928 | Walter Lantz Productions is established |
| 1943 | MCA Inc. establishes Revue Studios (later Universal Television) |
| 1963 | American Cable Systems is founded |
| 1964 | Universal Studios Hollywood opens |
| 1968 | American Cable Systems rebrands to Comcast |
| 1975 | Filmworks is founded |
| 1976 | Filmworks becomes Casablanca Record & Filmworks |
| 1980 | PolyGram renames Casablanca Record & Filmworks to PolyGram Pictures MCA Videocassette‚ Inc. (later Universal Pictures Home Entertainment) is established |
| 1983 | PolyGram Pictures closes |
| 1984 | Walter Lantz Productions' assets are sold to Universal Telemundo is founded |
| 1986 | General Electric re-purchases its former subsidiary RCA for $6.4 billion, including NBC and a stake in A&E |
| 1987 | PolyGram Movies is founded |
| 1989 | NBC relaunches Tempo Television as CNBC |
| 1990 | Universal Studios Florida opens PolyGram Movies is renamed PolyGram Filmed Entertainment Sky Television and British Satellite Broadcasting merge to form British Sky Broadcasting Universal Cartoon Studios (later Universal Animation Studios) is established |
| 1994 | DreamWorks Animation is founded |
| 1995 | Seagram acquires Universal through its acquisition of MCA NBC and Microsoft replace America's Talking with MSNBC |
| 1998 | Seagram acquires PolyGram Filmed Entertainment Barry Diller purchases Universal's domestic television assets Universal Television is renamed Studios USA Television |
| 1999 | PolyGram Filmed Entertainment is folded into Universal Pictures Universal Studios Florida expands to become Universal Orlando Resort |
| 2000 | Seagram is sold to Vivendi and merged with StudioCanal to become Vivendi Universal Entertainment |
| 2001 | Grand opening of Universal Studios Japan Vivendi purchases Studios USA |
| 2002 | NBC acquires Telemundo and Bravo Studios USA assets are folded into Universal Focus Features is formed Comcast acquires AT&T Broadband for $44.5 billion |
| 2004 | GE and Vivendi merge NBC and Universal into NBCUniversal |
| 2005 | Comcast sets up a joint-venture with PBS, Sesame Workshop & HIT Entertainment to form PBS Kids Sprout Comcast & Time Warner Cable jointly acquire Adelphia Cable assets for $17.6 billion |
| 2007 | Illumination is founded |
| 2011 | Vivendi divests interest in NBCU; Comcast buys 51% of NBCU from GE, turning it into a limited liability company NBCUniversal Archives is founded |
| 2012 | NBCUniversal divests its A&E Networks minority stake |
| 2013 | Comcast buys GE's remaining 49% of NBCU Comcast/NBCU assumes full ownership of Sprout |
| 2016 | NBCU acquires DreamWorks Animation |
| 2017 | Sprout relaunches as Universal Kids |
| 2018 | Comcast acquires Sky from 21st Century Fox |
| 2020 | NBCU launches Peacock |
| 2025 | NBCUniversal announces the closure of Universal Kids |
General Electric Company (GE) was an American multinational conglomerate founded in 1892, incorporated in the state of New York and headquartered in Boston.
Over the years, the company had multiple divisions, including aerospace, energy, healthcare, lighting, locomotives, appliances, and finance. In 2020, GE ranked among the Fortune 500 as the 33rd largest firm in the United States by gross revenue. In 2023, the company was ranked 64th in the Forbes Global 2000. In 2011, GE ranked among the Fortune 20 as the 14th most profitable company, but later very severely underperformed the market (by about 75%) as its profitability collapsed. Two employees of GE—Irving Langmuir (1932) and Ivar Giaever (1973)—have been awarded the Nobel Prize. From 1986 until 2013, GE was the owner of the NBC television network through its purchase of its former subsidiary RCA before its acquisition of NBC's parent company NBCUniversal by Comcast in 2011.
Following the Great Recession of the late 2000s decade, General Electric began selling off various divisions and assets, including its appliances and financial capital divisions, under Jeff Immelt's leadership as CEO. John Flannery, Immelt's replacement in 2017, further divested General Electric's assets in locomotives and lighting in order to focus the company more on aviation. Restrictions on air travel during the COVID-19 pandemic caused General Electric's revenue to fall significantly in 2020. Ultimately, GE's final CEO Larry Culp announced in November 2021 that General Electric was to be broken up into three separate, public companies by 2024. GE Aerospace, the aerospace company, is GE's legal successor. GE HealthCare, the health technology company, was spun off from GE in 2023. GE Vernova, the energy company, was founded when GE finalized the split. Following these transactions, GE Aerospace took the General Electric name and ticker symbols, while the old General Electric ceased to exist as a conglomerate.