Lights Out (book)
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Lights Out (book)
''Lights Out: Pride, Delusion, and the Fall of General Electric'' is a 2020 book written by ''Wall Street Journal'' reporters Thomas Gryta and Ted Mann. It documents the downfall of the American conglomerate General Electric, largely attributing it to the decisions of CEO Jeff Immelt. The book ends with Larry Culp becoming CEO in 2018. Contents ''Lights Out'' covers the recent history of the American conglomerate General Electric starting from when it was run by Jack Welch in the 1960s, and ending with Larry Culp becoming CEO in 2018, the first outsider to do so in the company's history. The book covers the company's decline, largely attributing it to former CEO Jeff Immelt's failure to fix major problems within the company, and his accounting practices that made it appear to outsiders that the company was doing better than it really was. An example of this was selling an asset to a bank to artificially increase profits, knowing that GE could later buy it back. The book als ...
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Ted Mann (journalist)
Ted Mann was the transportation reporter for the Greater New York section of ''The Wall Street Journal'' and is credited with breaking the story on Bridgegate. In 2019, he was working in the Journal's Washington bureau. Education Mann graduated from New York University New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ... in 2002 with a B.A. in English and American literature. Career He worked for more than seven years as a political correspondent and enterprise reporter at The Day of New London. Awards He's won two first place awards from the New England Associated Press News Executives Association (2010 for his coverage of a visit to Cuba by the American ship Amistad and 2008, NEAPNEA awarded him first-place for continuing coverage of the presidential primary contests in Iowa, New ...
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Mariner Books
Mariner Books, originally an imprint of HMH Books, was established in 1997 as a publisher of fiction, non-fiction, and poetry in trade paperback. Mariner is also the publisher of the Harvest backlist, formerly published by Harcourt Brace/Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. HarperCollins bought HMH in May 2021 for US$349 million. As of fall 2021, Mariner Books was listed as an imprint of HarperCollins. List of books published *''The Hobbit'' by J.R.R Tolkien (1937) *''The Fellowship of the Ring'' by J.R.R Tolkien (1954) *''The Two Towers'' by J.R.R Tolkien (1954) *''The Return of the King'' by J.R.R Tolkien *'' The Man in the High Castle'', by Philip K. Dick (1962) *'' The Castle of Crossed Destinies'', by Italo Calvino, Translated by William Weaver, 1979. *''If on a winter's night a traveler'', by Italo Calvino, Translated by William Weaver, 1982. *''Downhill All the Way: An autobiography of the Years 1919 - 1939'' by Leonard Woolf, 1989. *'' The Blue Flower'', by Penelope Fitzgeral ...
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Wall Street Journal
''The Wall Street Journal'' (''WSJ''), also referred to simply as the ''Journal,'' is an American newspaper based in New York City. The newspaper provides extensive coverage of news, especially business and finance. It operates on a subscription model, requiring readers to pay for access to most of its articles and content. The ''Journal'' is published six days a week by Dow Jones & Company, a division of News Corp. As of 2023, ''The'' ''Wall Street Journal'' is the largest newspaper in the United States by print circulation, with 609,650 print subscribers. It has 3.17 million digital subscribers, the second-most in the nation after ''The New York Times''. The newspaper is one of the United States' newspapers of record. The first issue of the newspaper was published on July 8, 1889. The editorial page of the ''Journal'' is typically center-right in its positions. The newspaper has won 39 Pulitzer Prizes. History Founding and 19th century A predecessor to ' ...
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General Electric
General Electric Company (GE) was an American Multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate founded in 1892, incorporated in the New York (state), state of New York and headquartered in Boston. Over the years, the company had multiple divisions, including GE Aerospace, aerospace, GE Power, energy, GE HealthCare, healthcare, lighting, locomotives, appliances, and GE Capital, finance. In 2020, GE ranked among the Fortune 500, ''Fortune'' 500 as the 33rd largest firm in the United States by gross revenue. In 2023, the company was ranked 64th in the Forbes Global 2000, ''Forbes'' Global 2000. In 2011, GE ranked among the Fortune 20 as the 14th most profitable company, but later very severely underperformed the market (by about 75%) as its profitability collapsed. Two employees of GE—Irving Langmuir (1932) and Ivar Giaever (1973)—have been awarded the Nobel Prize. From 1986 until 2013, GE was the owner of the NBC television network through its ...
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Jeff Immelt
Jeffrey Robert Immelt (born February 19, 1956) is an American manufacturing executive working as a venture partner at New Enterprise Associates. He previously was the CEO of General Electric from 2001 to 2017, and the CEO of GE's Medical Systems division from 1997 to 2000. Immelt's tenure saw GE's largest divestments in the company's history, as the company sold almost two-thirds of its subsidiaries and assets. Early life and education Immelt was born on February 19, 1956, in Cincinnati, the son of Donna Rosemary (née Wallace), a school teacher, and Joseph Francis Immelt, who managed the General Electric Aircraft Engines Division. Immelt attended Finneytown Secondary Campus. There he captained the football and basketball teams. In college he played football and was an offensive tackle. He earned an A.B. in applied mathematics and economics ''cum laude'' from Dartmouth College in 1978. He was president of his fraternity, Phi Delta Alpha. During his years at Dartmouth he wor ...
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Larry Culp
Henry Lawrence "Larry" Culp, Jr. (born March 1963) is an American business executive. He is chairman and CEO of GE Aerospace. He is the first outsider to run GE in the company's 126-year history. Prior to joining GE, Culp worked at Pall Corporation and Danaher Corporation in Washington, D.C. He joined the Danaher Corporation in 1990 and was CEO from 2001 through 2014. Culp joined the GE board of directors in April 2018. Early life and education Culp was born and raised in the Washington, D.C. area, the son of a small welding company owner. He earned a bachelor's degree from Washington College, and an MBA from Harvard Business School. Career Culp joined Danaher in 1990 via the subsidiary Veeder-Root, and became President of that company 1993. He was appointed a group executive and corporate officer in 1995, with responsibility for Danaher’s Environmental and Electronic Test and Measurement platforms while also being President of Fluke and Fluke Networks. He was named an Execu ...
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Jack Welch
John Francis Welch Jr. (November 19, 1935 – March 1, 2020) was an American business executive, chemical engineer, and writer. He was Chairman and CEO of General Electric (GE) between 1981 and 2001. His long career at General Electric (GE) has left a polarizing legacy. Some people view these changes as necessary and have adopted his philosophy at other companies to keep what they view as a productive workforce. These decisions to adapt GE to a financial company have been poor for investors; Critics argue that his cut-throat work culture is responsible for the modern American capitalist philosophy of constant turnover and has decreased job stability in the United States since the 1980s. This culture has been adopted at many companies, such as Amazon and Uline. When Welch retired from GE, he received a severance payment of $417 million, the largest such payment in business history up to that point. In 2006, Welch's net worth was estimated at $720 million. Early life and ...
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September 11 Attacks
The September 11 attacks, also known as 9/11, were four coordinated Islamist terrorist suicide attacks by al-Qaeda against the United States in 2001. Nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners, crashing the first two into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City and the third into the Pentagon (headquarters of the U.S. Department of Defense) in Arlington County, Virginia. The fourth plane crashed in a rural Pennsylvania field during a passenger revolt. The attacks killed 2,977 people, making it the deadliest terrorist attack in history. In response to the attacks, the United States waged the global war on terror over multiple decades to eliminate hostile groups deemed terrorist organizations, as well as the foreign governments purported to support them. Ringleader Mohamed Atta flew American Airlines Flight 11 into the North Tower of the World Trade Center complex at 8:46 a.m. Seventeen minutes later at 9:03 a.m., United Airlines Flig ...
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2008 Financial Crisis
The 2008 financial crisis, also known as the global financial crisis (GFC), was a major worldwide financial crisis centered in the United States. The causes of the 2008 crisis included excessive speculation on housing values by both homeowners and financial institutions that led to the 2000s United States housing bubble, exacerbated by predatory lending for subprime mortgages and deficiencies in regulation. Cash out refinancings had fueled an increase in consumption that could no longer be sustained when home prices declined. The first phase of the crisis was the subprime mortgage crisis, which began in early 2007, as mortgage-backed securities (MBS) tied to U.S. real estate, and a vast web of Derivative (finance), derivatives linked to those MBS, collapsed in value. A liquidity crisis spread to global institutions by mid-2007 and climaxed with the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers in September 2008, which triggered a stock market crash and bank runs in several countries. The crisis ...
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Financial Times
The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and also published digitally that focuses on business and economic Current affairs (news format), current affairs. Based in London, the paper is owned by a Japanese holding company, Nikkei, Inc., Nikkei, with core editorial offices across Britain, the United States and continental Europe. In July 2015, Pearson plc, Pearson sold the publication to Nikkei for Pound sterling, £844 million (US$1.32 billion) after owning it since 1957. In 2019, it reported one million paying subscriptions, three-quarters of which were digital subscriptions. In 2023, it was reported to have 1.3 million subscribers of which 1.2 million were digital. The newspaper has a prominent focus on Business journalism, financial journalism and economic analysis rather than News media, generalist reporting, drawing both criticism and acclaim. It sponsors an Financial Times and McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award, annual book ...
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Bill Gates
William Henry Gates III (born October 28, 1955) is an American businessman and philanthropist. A pioneer of the microcomputer revolution of the 1970s and 1980s, he co-founded the software company Microsoft in 1975 with his childhood friend Paul Allen. Following the company's 1986 initial public offering (IPO), Gates became a billionaire in 1987—then the youngest ever, at age 31. ''Forbes'' magazine The World's Billionaires, ranked him as the world's wealthiest person for 18 out of 24 years between 1995 and 2017, including 13 years consecutively from 1995 to 2007. He became the first centibillionaire in 1999, when his net worth briefly surpassed $100 billion. According to ''Forbes'', as of May 2025, his net worth stood at US$115.1 billion, making him the thirteenth-richest individual in the world. Born and raised in Seattle, Washington, Gates was privately educated at Lakeside School (Seattle), Lakeside School, where he befriended Allen and developed his computing interests ...
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Commercial Paper
Commercial paper, in the global financial market, is an Unsecured debt, unsecured promissory note with a fixed Maturity (finance), maturity of usually less than 270 days. In layperson terms, it is like an "IOU" but can be bought and sold because its buyers and sellers have some degree of confidence that it can be successfully redeemed later for cash, based on their assessment of the credit risk, creditworthiness of the issuing company. Commercial paper is a Money market, money-market security (finance), security issued by large corporations to obtain funds to meet short-term debt obligations (for example, payroll) and is backed only by an issuing bank or company promise to pay the face amount on the maturity date specified on the note. Since it is not backed by Collateral (finance), collateral, only firms with excellent credit ratings from a recognized credit rating agency will be able to sell their commercial paper at a reasonable price. Commercial paper is usually sold at a di ...
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