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Things looked no better in Brussels. Since 1990 the European Commission, the executive arm of the 15-nation European Union, has exercised jurisdiction over all mergers between firms with combined revenues of $4.2 billion, of which $212 million must be within Europe. The GE-Honeywell deal easily met the criteria. When U.S. lawmakers ask what business it is of the Europeans if two U.S. companies want to merge, part of the answer is that GE alone employs 85,000 people in Europe and collected $25 billion in revenue there last year...
...foreign ministry in Silvio Berlusconi's new right-wing Italian government. Moreover, Monti was proud of the working relationship he had forged with his American counterparts; he told TIME he had "profound respect" for the U.S. regulators and described his own agency as a "junior institution." Before Christmas, when GE's competitors called on the case officer assigned to the merger, Enrique Gonzalez-Diaz, to persuade him to start a lengthy "phase two" investigation of the deal, Gonzalez-Diaz accused them of whining...
...Spaniard, 39, a native of the Canary Islands, is known as a brilliant mathematician and lawyer, hardworking and intensely ambitious. One source (on the losing side of this case) also calls him "deeply cynical about the motivation of business and a nightmare to deal with." GE's opponents knew they would never convince Monti without first winning over Gonzalez-Diaz. The principals came to a rough division of labor: Rolls-Royce stressed the dangers of allowing GE to "bundle" engines and avionics in packages that other firms couldn't match, and United Technologies concentrated on GE's role...
When Welch arrived at Monti's office on June 13, the Commissioner was flanked by seven aides. Monti stiffly read out his conditions. "It wasn't a negotiating session," said a GE lawyer who was present. GE, said Monti, had to sell 19.9% of the leasing arm in such a way that it "would assure nondiscrimination in the purchasing policies of GECAS...
Monti told TIME that the key point was that GE could not restrict those who would buy the shares. But to some GE advisers, this could mean only one thing--Monti wanted GE to sell part of GECAS to a competitor. That was never going to fly. "It would have been like asking [Ford CEO] Jacques Nasser to drive a Toyota for 20% of the day," says Yale economist Barry Nalebuff, who advised GE. Monti asked Welch to consider the terms and return that afternoon. Welch did, and rejected them. The next day, Welch called Card and flew back...