The conglomerate General Electric says it is considering a breakup after taking $6 billion in losses to its insurance division.
For decades, GE gobbled up businesses as diverse as credit cards, jet engines, and TV networks. But last year, the company started losing bets made on coal and oil. Then came losses on power plants. Now it’s insurance. GE’s freshly-minted CEO John Flannery says its long-term care insurance division will lose $6 billion this year and $15 billion in the future.
“Our results over the past several years, including 2017 and the insurance charge, only further my belief that we need to continue to move with purpose to reshape GE.”
In November, GE said it was studying the sale of assets. But on a conference call today, Flannery said it would move “aggressively” to focus on its core business units: equipment for industry, aviation, and healthcare.
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