This summary is based on the third quarter fiscal 2008 earnings call conducted by General Electric Co. (GE: chart) on October 10, 2008.

Manager:

- Chairman and CEO: Jeff Immelt
- Vice Chairman and CFO: Keith Sherin
- VP, Investor Communications: Trevor Schauenberg

Key Investors Issues

- Revenue was up 11% to $42.5 billion.
- Net income of $4.3 billion or 45 cents a share, was down 12%, from $5.6 billion or 50 cents a share in 2007.

Year to Date Highlights:

- Revenues rose 10% to $136 billion.
- Net earnings were down 12% to $13.7 billion or $1.42 a share on higher expenses.

Third Quarter Highlights

Strong top line was driven by the Industrial businesses with revenues of $47 billion up 11% from $42.5 billion in the prior year.

- Industrial sales of $28.9 billion were up 17% and Financial Services revenue of $18 billion were up 2%.
- Net income of $4.3 billion or 45 cents a share, was down 12%, from $5.6 billion or 50 cents a share in the prior year due to a 33% drop in Capital Finance.
- The company realized $13.5 billion of orders, up 5%, with the Energy business up 21% driven by wind and aero-derivatives.

Aviation had very strong military orders and again tough comparisons there sold out based on the backlogs at Airbus and Boeing.

- In services, the firm had $9.3 billion of orders, up 16% and ended with $116 billion of customized service agreement backlog.
- The cash in total for the company is $13.6 billion at CFOA, down because there are no special dividends from insurance dispositions this year.
- GE repurchased $2 billion of stock so far this year and plant and equipment reinvestment so far this year has been $2.3 billion.

It closed a few acquisitions; Hydro and Whatman and closed the Weather Channel in the third quarter, ending with $3.5 billion of debt.

- The firm had $88 billion of Commercial paper in line with a commitment to bring CP under $90 billion in the third quarter and down to $80 billion by the end of the year.
- Despite the volatility in the debt markets, the firm is still funding itself without any issues and it does have more protection as retail sources continue to grow funding.

- Energy Infrastructure revenues of $9.8 billion were up 32% and segment profit of $1.4 billion was up 31%.
- Energy revenues of $7.4 billion were up 38% and the segment profit was up 36%, with total orders of $7.9 billion,up 18%.
- The firm received orders for 33 gas turbines including seven in the US in the quarter.
- Wind orders were up 50% to $2.3 billion and wind commitments are $14 billion, up 90% from a year ago.
- The total equipment backlog is $24.9 billion up 36% from year ago and orders pricing was up 8% for equipment and 4% for services.

- Equipment revenues were up 38% with equipment up 61% and service revenue was up 10% and thermal was up 66%.
- GE delivered over 1,000 units and that was up over 340 units, driving segment profit up 36%.
- Oil & Gas total orders at $2.1 billion were up 4% driven by Services which was up 36%.

- Technology Infrastructure revenues of $11.5 billion were up 9% and segment profit of $1.9 billion was up 2%.
- Aviation revenues of $4.8 billion were up 14% and segment profit of $830 million was up 13%.
- Orders were $5.6 billion still up 1% and with the airframe manufacturers basically sold out into 2011 or 2012, these are expected to cool off here.
- Services revenues were up 3% driven by spare parts sales which were up 11% offset by services adjustments for aircraft utilization.

- Healthcare revenues were up 3% and segment profit down 8%.
- DI was up 15% partially offset by the US orders down about 6% as softness in the US Healthcare market continued with the reimbursement changes.

- Tech Infrastructure Transportation revenues of $1.2 billion were up 13% and op profit was up 1%.
- The strong orders growth of $1 billion of orders were up 6% driven by services up 34%.
- Equipment orders were down $150 million driven by fewer locomotives partially offset by growth in off highway vehicles, with orders up 300% and over 1,900 units in the backlog.

- NBCU revenues of $5 billion, were up 35% and include a little over $1 billion of Olympic revenue and excluding Olympics revenue would have been up about 8%.
- That is driven by a strong film slate, strong cable revenue, partially offset by lower local station revenue.
- The segment profit came in at $645 million up 10% that was again driven by strong results in cable, the network and film partially offset by the Olympics in the quarter.

The Network was about flat in revenue and down about 5% in segment profit excluding the Olympics.