By The Campfire

May 16, 2008

General Electric is planning to auction off its appliance division. Just read it on MSNBC. Goldman Sachs has already been hired to smack the gavel. Sources say it could fetch between $5 and $8 billion. Why do I care? I care because I have a kitchen filled with GE appliances.

If, according to my pal Jeff Johnson, this doesn’t strike you as sacrilege, it should. If NASA was getting out of the space business or Exxon was getting out of the oil business, would that seem odd to you? We’re talking about General Electric here.

I know GE’s head honcho, Jeffery Immelt, has been under pressure to endlessly make Andrew Jacksons stacked on top of Andrew Jacksons (Jack Welch made some fairly strong comments after GE posted less than stellar financials recently), but get rid of electric appliances? Maybe they will change the name to General Unelectric.

Will Wal-Mart get out of retailing? Will The Rolling Stones become priests? Will talentless, Hollywood starlets start wearing panties? Geez.

Forgive my incredulity, but what’s next? Will Disney auction Mickey and Goofy off to shore up the bottom line? Will the Food Network toss Giada and Emeril? Wait, they did get rid of Emeril Live, so who knows.

After years of certain politicians in power claiming there was no global warming and making fun of Al (the internet) Gore for stirring up a Green stink, the Pentagon (of all august institutions) came out this week with a terrorist warning that blames global warming for melting all of that ice up north, opening the northern borders to trouble. Really? But if there’s no such thing as global warming, how can that be?

Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain. So what if Starbucks gets out of the coffee business and gets into the automotive transmission business? Will I soon be able to buy a steaming cup of joe from an Icee machine? John, Paul, Ringo and Joseph, what in the wide, wide world of sports is going on here?

G.E is getting out of the electric appliance business because profits fell 6%? After the year my investments had at the hands of supposedly professional advisors at one of the country’s largest investment firms, a 6% loss would be a freaking joy to behold. I’d welcome that and celebrate with a failed mortgage and a war with no end and while I’m celebrating, I’d gorge my Civic on $4 a gallon gas. Maybe I should auction off that failed auction rate security to pay for, oh, wait, they tried that, but there were no takers. Maybe in a few years.

My G.E. appliances are part of my daily life – and I love them – so I’ll have a tougher time ditching them. I think I need to go back and read Mr. Welch’s books for some insight.

This part of the AP story (via MSNBC) says it all:

“GE entered the appliance business in 1907. Revenue for GE’s Louisville, Ky.-based industrial business, which includes appliance manufacturing, was nearly $17.73 billion in 2007, down slightly from $17.74 billion in 2006.”

With a drop like that, it makes perfect sense.

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