General Electric said Friday it has begun a strategic review of its appliance-making business that could involve a sale, spinoff or partnership with another company.
The US conglomerate could as a result get out of the appliance business for which GE is identified for the first time in over 100 years.
"This review is consistent with the strategy we have been executing to transform our portfolio for long-term growth, " GE chairman and chief executive Jeff Immelt said.
"Since 2003 we have exited slower growth and more volatile businesses, generating 52 billion dollars in gross proceeds from dispositions. These proceeds have been reinvested into a transformed portfolio of faster growth, higher margin businesses, stock buybacks and other restructuring activities."
Immelt said that GE Appliances "has a very strong brand, great distribution, a talented leadership team and for more than 100 years has been one of the icons associated with GE in the United States," but has failed to make significant inroads outside the US market.
"We want to make this good business great again by finding the right strategic solution -- a solution that will give Appliances the global reach and investment required to compete more effectively," Immelt said.
GE said it would keep its lighting and electrical distribution businesses, which are part of the company's Industrial unit along with appliances. THe division has 7.2 billion dollars in revenues and employs about 13,000 people worldwide.
GE, which traces its history back to Thomas Edison and the first lightbulbs, launched its first electric toaster in 1905 and an electric range in 1910.
But appliances now represent a small portion of GE -- one of the world's biggest companies, which produces jet engines, locomotives, water treatment plants and medical equipment. It also has a major finance arm and controls the media-entertainment giant NBC Universal.
The broadly diversified company, seen as a microcosm of the US economy, reported a first-quarter profit of 4.3 billion dollars. The Industrial segment, which makes appliances, lighting and security systems, reported a 16 percent slump in profit to 300 million dollars as revenues edged up only one percent.
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