GE to provide more data
Manufacturing conglomerate says it will disclose more info about operations.
February 20, 2002: 12:51 p.m. ET
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NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - General Electric Co. said Wednesday the company will change its financial disclosure methods to provide more detail about its operations, including its GE Capital financial services arm, making the conglomerate the latest company to alter reporting practices in the wake of Enron Corp.'s collapse.
General Electric (GE: down $0.07 to $36.33, Research, Estimates) shares pared early gains and traded flat Wednesday after the company disclosed the change.
The company, which manufactures such diverse products as aircraft engines an light bulbs, said it will now provide revenue and operating profit for 26 businesses in both its industrial and GE Capital units. Previously, GE reported only 12 business segments in its annual report. Under the changes, the company will now report its Medical Systems business separately in the annual report, according to Chief Financial Officer Keith Sherin.
Additionally, GE will continue to consolidate the 25 businesses of GE Capital into five main segments. However, information about 14 businesses within those segments now will be stated in the annual report due March 8.
"If the annual report or quarterly report has to be the size of the New York City phone book, that's life," CEO Jeffrey Immelt told the Wall Street Journal. "But the extent to which in order to help my investors feel better, they need to know more things and different things and see it in a different way - I'm always open to that."
The changes come as federal investigators probe accounting questions at Enron, which slid from being the largest U.S. energy trader into bankruptcy almost overnight. Investors lost confidence in the firm after allegations surfaced that top executives hid debt and manufactured profits through an elaborate web of accounting tricks.
Click here for the latest on Enron
GE said the changes in its disclosures were planned before the Enron scandal, but it remains unclear whether they will satisfy critics who worry that the company's large size and complexity make it difficult to fully grasp its finances.
Shares of IBM dropped Tuesday after the company said it will change its disclosure practices to make more information available to investors.
GE's shares nose-dived earlier this year on mounting concern about questionable accounting, but rebounded after Immelt reaffirmed the company's earnings forecast earlier in February. 
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