He wanted to do a giant industrial acquisition that would ramp up the money GE earned from machines and services, opening a new stream of cash into the corporate treasury. That cash, and those earnings, could then be used to make an even bigger move that wasn’t even discussed yet outside of the small groups that regularly huddled at headquarters in Fairfield and GE Capital’s nerve center down the road in Norwalk. If the industrial deal worked, GE would have the financial cushion to move even further to wean itself off financial services. Instead of simply promising a smaller and more secure GE
...more
