GE Annual Report 2000: Business Review: GE Equity


			Precise Software's corporate look reflects its brand of leading-edge, comprehensive, proactive performance management, which propels the performance of more than 1,100 businesses.

GE Equity is the private equity financing unit of General Electric, making investments between $5 million and $20 million, and focusing on companies that are synergistic with other GE businesses.

2000 was a strong year for us. We invested over $1.3 billion, which brought our portfolio to $4.6 billion and 370 companies worldwide. Our diverse portfolio includes commercial and industrial businesses, financial services, medical and healthcare, technology, consumer and media companies. We've also kept pace with GE's global expansion, increasing our international investments by over 25% in Europe, Asia and Latin America.

Using our Value Beyond Capital approach, we identify portfolio companies that match GE business and GE customer goals or needs, and co-invest with 30 GE businesses—Card Services with First Data Corporation, GEFA with AnnuityNet, GE Aircraft Engines with Enigma—the list goes on.

More than investors, we become partners. Companies get the opportunity to sell to GE and see how GE initiatives work first hand. For example, our Six Sigma consulting and methodology help them bolster their operations to increase profits and spur growth. On the GE side, we gain access to new technologies, new markets, and leading edge e-Business innovations and outsourcing services.

Our alliance with DigitalThink, a provider of enterprise e-Learning solutions based in California, tells our story well. In addition to GE Equity being an investor, GE Capital Corporate worked with DigitalThink to roll out and deploy their innovative e-Business program to "e-Skill" 40,000 GE associates in a few short months—and this is just the beginning. The results? Reduction in training costs and deployment times and an overall increase in training productivity.

Boston-based Precise Software Solutions—a provider of IT infrastructure performance solutions—also exemplifies our investing model. Since our initial investment in 1999, Precise has sold its services to six GE businesses, and GE has realized significant savings from a more efficient IT environment. Our relationship with Precise Software benefits both GE and the customer.

By investing in companies that can become valuable partners in areas where other GE businesses do not operate, we are driving value for our portfolio companies and GE.