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General Electric to sell appliance unit
After seeing quarterly earnings drop 6 percent, GE reportedly is ready to auction off another of its divisions.
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FAIRFIELD, CONN. - General Electric Co. plans to auction off its appliances business, the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.
GE has hired Goldman Sachs Group Inc. to run an auction for the appliance division, according to the newspaper, which quoted unidentified sources. The sale could yield between $5 billion and $8 billion, according to the Journal.
Spokesmen for the Fairfield-based industrial conglomerate and Goldman Sachs would not comment.
GE last year took in $11.6 billion in its sale of its plastics division. Chief Executive Jeff Immelt has been under pressure to restructure the industrial and financial conglomerate, particularly since last month's surprisingly downbeat first-quarter earnings report: Profits fell 6 percent.
Since then, Immelt has brushed off questions about GE spinning off more businesses. He said shortly after the earnings report that GE has already sold businesses valued at between $50 billion and $60 billion in what he called the "most active portfolio change in the history of the company."
He also has rejected calls for GE to divest itself of its NBC-Universal property.
Revenue for GE's Louisville, Ky.-based industrial business, which includes appliance manufacturing, was nearly $17.3 billion in 2007, down slightly from $17.74 billion in 2006.
Total revenue for GE last year was $172.7 billion.
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