GE Plans to Merge Units in Revamp

General Electric Co. unveiled a sweeping reorganization of its companies Thursday as Chairman Jeffrey Immelt continued a push for the return of 10% annual profit growth with a lineup that favors media, transportation, health care and advanced materials.

In an e-mail sent to GE employees, Immelt said he wanted to streamline the corporation’s divisional headquarters while emphasizing GE’s future as a technology, services and finance company. Immelt’s plan combines businesses that serve common customers and industries.

Fairfield, Conn.-based GE makes such diverse products as lightbulbs and jet engines and is one of the world’s largest providers of insurance and financing.

In the last year, Immelt has made a number of moves to shed slow-growth operations in favor of hotter prospects. For example, GE has sold some insurance assets while picking up health-care companies such as Finland’s Instrumentarium and London-based Amersham, which will operate under the same umbrella as GE’s diagnostic imaging business.

A GE spokesman said the reorganization would eliminate job duplication and produce cost savings, though it was too early to put a number on those moves.

The plan takes effect Jan. 1 and does not alter the company’s financial forecasts, GE said.

GE’s return to 10% or better annual earnings growth is a goal that has eluded Immelt since he took over from Chairman Jack Welch in 2001. GE doesn’t expect to hit that target until 2005.

GE said its reorganization would create divisions that include energy, transportation, infrastructure, health care, NBC-Universal and advanced materials.

NBC-Universal is the combination of GE’s NBC television network with Vivendi Universal’s entertainment assets.

GE shares fell 37 cents to $29.15 on the New York Stock Exchange.