GE Decides to Move To Boston
After searching for months, General Electric (GE) has announced that is moving its headquarters from Fairfield, Connecticut, to Boston. The relocation will serve to benefit the industrial giant in several ways. While Fairfield is located in suburbia and is far from universities and transportation hubs, Boston is home to 55 colleges and universities and is home to Logan International Airport. This gives the company access to potentially thousands of graduates for new talent. The proximity of the airport will also allow the executives to more easily fly to locations around the world. Finally, the city is giving General Electric tax breaks on the company’s property taxes of $25 million, and the state is providing incentives and grants totaling $120 million, resulting in significant savings. This also lines up with CEO Jeffrey Immelt’s push to me the company in a more technologically savvy direction with its access to technology talent from the many educational institutions that Boston offers.
GE Will Sell Appliances Business to Haier
Recently, GE had to walk back from a proposed sale of its appliance business to Electrolux for $3.3 billion because of intense pushback from antitrust regulators in the U.S. Now, Haier (HRELY), a Chinese company, has announced that it will purchase GE’s appliances business for $5.4 billion. Unlike the Electrolux (ELUXY) deal, experts do not believe the Haier purchase will receive much scrutiny from antitrust regulators since the company has little current presence in the U.S. This would be a boon to GE’s push to streamline its business, focusing more on industry and less on other business lines.
Recent Deal With Alstom (ALSMY) Acquisition and Sale of GE Capital
Just in November, General Electric acquired Alstom’s energy business for $10.6 billion, giving it more presence in the European market. GE also sold $104 billion worth of its assets with GE Capital. This has the potential to help the business maintain its health while also avoiding the regulatory burdens that have come after the financial crisis.
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