GE 3Q profit drops 18 pct, sales of equipment weak

[October 15, 2010]  NEW YORK (AP) -- General Electric Co. said Friday its third-quarter income fell 18 percent because of a loss from a Japanese division that it's selling. Lower equipment sales also damped results.

The industrial and financial giant, which makes everything from refrigerators to power plant equipment, reported net income of $2.06 billion, or 18 cents per share for the quarter ended Sept. 30. That compares with earnings of $2.49 billion, or 23 cents per share, a year ago.

Excluding the loss from its Japan consumer finance business, GE earned 29 cents per share, 2 cents above Wall Street estimates, according to a survey of analysts by Thomson Reuters.

But revenue slipped 5 percent to $35.9 billion. That fell short of Wall Street estimates by about $1.7 billion. Investors reacted by sending shares down 2.6 percent in premarket trading.

GE expects revenues in its industrial division to be flat in the final three months of the year.

GE said profits dropped in NBC Universal and its technology infrastructure businesses. But CEO Jeff Immelt noted that equipment orders increased during the quarter by 9 percent.

[Associated Press; By CHRIS KAHN]

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