Ford to spend $75 million retooling truck plant for small cars
Has housing bottomed? Mortgage data lifts Toll Brothers (TOL), others
Google unveils Ad Manager system for use by anyone
The right REITs focus on rentals
Before the bell: FNM, FRE, AMLN, BMY, AAPL, AMR ...
Wal-Mart has high hopes for Marketside format
Mattel to get up to $100 million in Bratz case
Alabama county mulls bankruptcy; could be largest failure in history
Feed prices put the squeeze on meat producers
Take-Two and Electronic Arts sign confidentiality agreement, but I'm still skeptical
Big Lots (BIG) drops on soft sales outlook
Temasek: Credit crunch around for two more years?_thumbnail.gif){kind=logo}
Analyst calls: CRM, COT, EOG, MRVL, MNST, COMV, V
Serious Money: $99,000 CDs safer than $100,000
Infosys flexes its M&A muscles
Option Update: APC volatility at 45 into $5B repurchase program
While some companies may be consolidating, others are reconfiguring and expanding. General Electric Company (NYSE: GE) has acquired a small airplane engine company in the Czech Republic. Selling it's appliance business and adding more to it's portfolio of aircraft and engine capability should be a good move. The Wall Street Journal (subscription required) reported today that GE hopes to improve its competitive position against Pratt & Whitney.
A response from a Pratt & Whitney spokesman played down the increased competition and said that although the company takes this GE move seriously it has a 45-year history producing small engines and holds a solid position in the market place. This type of comment is to be expected and has some validity, but that does not make it good news for P&W.
P&W is a division of another major giant industrial conglomerate United Technologies (NYSE: UTX). Both GE and UTX stocks were up in early morning trading today.
UPDATE: GE closed at $26.91 up $0.40 (1.51%). UTX closed at $61.05 up $1.35 ( 2.26%).
Sheldon Liber is the CEO of a small private investment company and the principal for design and research at an architecture & planning firm. He writes the columns Chasing Value and Serious Money. Disclosure: I own shares of GE.
