GE stock price: One startling number shows how far company has fallen

AP Images / Richard Drew

• General Electric’s stock is surging after the company ousted
  its CEO, but its issues date back far beyond his tenure.
• GE has lost roughly $500 billion in market value since August
  2000, including a nearly 30% hit to its stock price this year
  alone.

Struggling General Electric just ousted CEO John Flannery after
less than a year. The company said on Monday
that H. Lawrence Culp, Jr. would take over as chairman
and CEO effective immediately. 

But the company’s problems date back much further than Flannery’s
tenure.

Since achieving a peak market cap of $594 billion way back in
August 2000, GE has seen its value tumbled by almost $500
billion. As of Friday’s close, the company was worth just $98
billion.

Business
Insider / Joe Ciolli, data from Bloomberg

While GE’s stock spiked as much as 16% on the news of Flannery’s
departure, the company’s shares are still down 29% this year.
Losses have mounted as investors have grappled with the toxic
combination of increasing debt and diminishing profits.

GE’s latest woes stem from continued weakness in its power
division, which have been a drag on the overall business. The
company said on Monday that it would absorb a goodwill charge of
up to $23 billion for the power segment. 

On a broader basis, the company has struggled to restructure its
portfolio in timely fashion, something for which Flannery was
regularly criticized. The company said in June that it
would spin off its
healthcare business and split from oil giant Baker Hughes in a
massive reorganization.

The hits keep coming for GE, which was removed from the
bellwether Dow Jones industrial average over the
summer. GE shares only recently fell below the $100 billion
market cap threshold for the first time since the start of the
9-1/2-year bull market, back
in March 2009.

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