This, my friends, is what a 1978 widescreen television should look like. GE's Widescreen 1000 projection TV featured "the 'chairside convenience' of random access remote control," and "computer-like circuitry" to keep the color just right. Flat screens are for Communists. Click to enlarge. [Retro Thing via Coudal]
George W. Bush has been celebrating the twilight of his disastrous presidency by seemingly spending the entirety of 2008 overseas. Right now, as NBC constantly reminds us, he's in Beijing, enjoying the Olympics. Also with him is internationally beloved teddy bear war criminal Henry Kissinger! (Read on to learn why this is yet another example of how terrible NBC is.)
Business types are excited about the news today that General Electric is planning to sell off its appliance division in a $5 billion move. Normal types are excited because this proves that GE CEO Jeff Immelt is now making decisions for his $323 billion company based on how they would affect the characters of 30 Rock. After Alec Baldwin's character Jack Donaghy got relieved of his imaginary position running the microwave division of GE's NBC on the April 21 episode, it was only a matter of time before this sale happened. The loss of a leader of Alec Baldwin's caliber—and its ripple effects on Tina Fey—sends strong signals to Wall Street. Recap video of that fateful episode is below. If GE decides to finance Tracy Morgan's Fat Bitch 2 movie, we're rating its stock a strong buy.
In today's installment of our review of the world's most amusing vintage ads, we take a look at General Electric's magazine ads from the 1930s and 40s. When they weren't building US bombs to help the war effort, they had a mess of lamps, refrigerators, and radios to sell to housewives and their all-American families in shudder-worthy ways. Boris Karloff, scary children, patriotic dishwashing, and the perfect Mother's Day gift, after the jump.
Producing The Office is just not as profitable as building engine rings for billion-dollar bombers or constructing vast Superfund sites—that's the sad fact of being a huge corporate conglomerate. So it's been rumored that General Electric will sell NBC, possibly after the Olympics. But GE chairman Jeffrey Immelt, liberally employing exclamation points, told shareholders that he is planning no such thing: "Should we sell NBCU? The answer is no!" They're the only multinational defense contractor with an in-house propaganda wing and they're gonna keep it, dammit. [NYT]
Bill O'Reilly's crusade against NBC (the result of his feud with MSNBC runner Keith Olbermann) reached a dramatic and hilarious peak recently when he sent his correspondents to ambush GE Chairman Jeffrey Immelt. Because they used to sell airplane parts to Iran, you see! This is a target far greater in power and influence than O'Reilly's usual liberal bugbears, but it's certainly not unprecedented for certain TV rebels to attack the giant conglomerate. It's just that it usually happens on programs broadcast on GE's own network. Join us for a few entertaining examples, won't you?
Steve Jobs has quieted one long-running concern of unhappy Apple shareholders by naming Avon CEO Andrea Jung to the male-dominated board of the Cupertino-based computer maker. Jung will be the board's first female member in nearly 11 years. The addition likely has nothing to do with appeasing feminists, however, and everything to do with Jung's business connections. She also serves on the board of GE, the parent of NBC Universal. Apple's media strategy has been hindered by a feud between NBC's Jeff Zucker and Jobs over selling TV shows online. Jung will likely have to recuse herself from any direct dealings. But as a behind-the-scenes peacemaker? She's perfectly made up. (Photo by Avon)
Still more Dow Jones action! The big news: The board, "frustrated with the pace of the Bancroft family's negotiations with News Corp., said it would take over talks on the future of the company." This is viewed as a sign that Rupert Murdoch is going to get what he wants: "Because the Dow Jones board is obliged to pursue the best result for all shareholders, the handoff makes the $5-billion offer from Murdoch's News Corp. harder to beat for potential rivals."
The Guardian says that shareholders are unlikely to get behind consumer publisher and Financial Times owner Pearson's attempt to block Rupert Murdoch's takeover of Dow Jones, since the company "has debts of over £1bn and has made a number of large purchases in the educational publishing sector over recent years." Financial Times staffers are also unhappy, WSJwith good reason: "The easiest way to meet the cost-savings goals would be for the newspapers to cut their biggest expense—journalists." But is Rupert showing the strain of all this wheeling and dealing and potential sabotage?
General Electric is in talks with Pearson, publisher of the Financial Times to present an opposing bid to News Corp.'s offer for Dow Jones. The attempt to thwart Rupert Murdoch's takeover of the Wall Street Journal may involve "the Bancroft family retaining a 20 per cent stake in Dow Jones, with the remainder held by Pearson and GE, thus continuing the family's involvement with a company the family has controlled for more than a century." While the bid seems unlikely (Murdoch's $5 billion offer is more than a third of Pearson's total market capitalization), it makes strategic sense: G.E. owns CNBC, which will face a strong challenge from News Corp.'s imminent Fox News Channel, and a resurgent WSJ can only hurt the FT.
