General Electric Co. (GE)’s home appliance business has drawn interest from Sweden’s Electrolux (ELUXB) AB and Quirky Inc., a consumer-product development startup, two people with knowledge of the matter said.
The companies are in talks to buy the century-old unit that GE recently decided to try again to sell as Chief Executive Officer Jeffrey Immelt focuses on industrial operations, said the people, who asked not to be identified because details are private. Quirky would team up with private-equity firms to acquire a majority stake, leaving GE with a minority holding, the people said.
The appliance division may fetch about $2 billion in a sale, the people said. There’s no guarantee that the discussions will lead to an agreement, they said.
Quirky, which builds products based on ideas submitted by a community of online users, counts Fairfield, Connecticut-based GE among its financial backers after the manufacturer made a $30 million investment in November.
GE also opened up thousands of patents to New York-based Quirky when they formed a partnership last year to develop a line of smart-home devices, including an air conditioner controlled by smartphones. Electrolux is No. 2 in U.S. sales of appliances such as dishwashers, cooktops and refrigerators, behind Whirlpool Corp., according to research service Statista. GE ranked third by market share, Statista’s data show.
See the full article at http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-08-13/ge-appliances-said-to-draw-electrolux-quirky-as-suitors.html
No comments:
Post a Comment