"GE stock stumbles to lowest point since 2003."
That's the headline from the Associated Press this afternoon. As The Cable Gamer has been pointing out for a year now, General Electric's attempt to make itself into a hip green media company is not going to work. But don't take my word for it--take the word of Wall Street. Which is to say, the millions of shareholders who form the planetary decisionmaking pool that determines the price of a widely held stock such as GE.
Jeff Immelt tells friends that he is bored as head of GE, and no doubt GE shareholders are restless, too, for a change in leadership.
The Achilles Heel of GE is NBC-Universal. GE has always been an industrial company, and then Jack Welch, begged on by his Hollywood-headed henchman, Bob Wright, diversified into other areas, including TV and then movies.
Along the way, GE lost its way. Building machines is not the same as making a TV show, or a movie--or putting on TV news. Welch could make it all work, but not Immelt.
So now Immelt and his new media underling, Jeff Zucker, don't seem to understand that MSNBC, for example, while surging slightly in the ratings, is nonetheless making more enemies than friends for the overall company.
The market is sending a signal, that it wants a NBCU spinoff, so that GE can get back to what it does best. And if Immelt doesn't get it, he will be replaced by a CEO who does get it. But while Immelt might not be all that competent as a corporate manager, he is plenty savvy as a media player. So he lets his hair grow longer (see above), to let liberals know that he is not just a "suit." (Bob Wright did the same thing in his Hollywood period, letting what little hair he had grow long.) So watch for Immmelt to leave before being pushed, perhaps to some gig in the Barack Obama presidential administration.
An Immelt exit will leave GE without a CEO, but it will give the company a desperately needed chance to restructure and downsize, under better leadership.
The Cable Gamer is no stock picker, or market-timer. But she figures that GE stock will probably start to rise, as the market starts to price in the good news of Immelt's departure, and GE's breakup.
