GE Reportedly Shedding RCA/Ariola Record Unit

General Electric is expected to announce today that it will sell its recently acquired record operations, RCA/Ariola International, to Bertelsmann AG, a West German electronics conglomerate, an investment banking source said Monday.

It has been speculated for several months that GE would sell the record unit that it bought as part of its acquisition of RCA Corp. earlier this year. RCA/Ariola, the third-largest U.S. record distributor, was formed a year ago by the merger of RCA Records and the record business of Bertelsmann, which retained a 25% stake in the company. Bertelsmann had the right of first refusal to buy the remainder should RCA decide to sell it, the source said. The price could not be learned immediately.

Jack Batty, a GE spokesman in Fairfield, Conn., said late Monday that he could neither confirm nor deny the report.