GE to Sell Appliance Unit

GE is planning to sell its appliance division, one of the oldest and least glamorous portions of the conglomerate's huge and disparate holdings. Apparently, CEO Jeffrey Immelt is facing increasing pressure to divest some underperforming businesses to appease shareholders who were angered at the company's disappointing earnings announcement. Mr. Immelt had the audacity to miss earnings guidance just a few weeks after giving a chipper view of the company's outlook. Furthermore, as I reported here a few weeks ago, Mr. Immelt faced the indignity of being scolded on national television by his former boss, Jack Welch, who publicly derided the new CEO for accurately reporting GE's results. After the public flogging, I'm certain that Mr. Immelt regretted selling off the insurance business several years ago, since he could no longer borrow from insurance reserves (as his former boss had done for many years) to boost earnings results to satisfy Wall Street analysts.
Frankly, I don't know if it a good idea for GE to sell its appliance unit. I'm sure it's good for the investment bankers who will earn a few bucks. Investment banks love companies that are constantly buying and selling units. So many "synergies" and "strategic alliances" to nurture, while at the same time "unlocking value" and "focusing on core competencies." These are just the catch phrases I've heard of, but any good one will do as long as the churn continues.
I have a suggestion for Mr. Immelt on how to raise $25 billion dollars. Go through the balance sheet and sell every asset that is labeled as "other." I took a look at GE's 10-K after the earnings miss recently and tried to determine if I could figure out its holdings from looking at the balance sheet. Although GE is often described as an industrial conglomerate, it is actually a huge financial services firm with no regulatory capital requirements or ability to borrow from the Fed if it runs into trouble. Intellectually, I have an interest in determining where GE's exposure lies. The most interesting thing about my analysis was the many categories labeled as "other" on the balance sheet. When I scrolled down to the appendix, I was surprised to find that within the descriptions of the "other" categories were further sub-categories labeled as "other." Adding up all the sub-categories yielded a grand total of $25 billion worth of assets without any detailed description. Perhaps that seems like a trifle for a company that has $800 billion in assets? But it represents about 21% of GE's book value. Maybe Mr. Immelt would consider "unlocking" some of that value?