uses of ge see ge disambiguation . not to be confused with the former british company general electric company nor the musical project general elektriks . this article needs additional citations for verification . please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . unsourced material may be challenged and removed . september 2015 learn how and when to remove this template message general electric company type public traded as nyse ge dow jones ind. average component s & p 500 component industry conglomerate founded april 15 1892 ; 124 years ago 1892 04 15 schenectady new york u.s. 1 founders thomas edison charles coffin elihu thomson edwin houston headquarters boston massachusetts u.s. 2 3 area served worldwide key people jeffrey r. immelt chairman & ceo products aircraft engines appliances electrical distribution electric motors energy finance gas health care lighting locomotives oil software water weapons wind turbines revenue us 140.39 billion 2015 4 operating income us 8.186 billion 2015 4 net income us 6.126 billion 2015 4 total assets us 493.10 billion 2015 4 total equity us 98.300 billion 2015 4 number of employees 305 000 2015 4 subsidiaries ge aviation ge capital ge global research ge healthcare ge home & business solutions ge oil and gas ge energy ge transportation website www.ge.com general electric ge is an american multinational conglomerate corporation incorporated in new york 5 and headquartered in boston massachusetts . 2 as of 2016 the company operates through the following segments power & water oil and gas aviation healthcare transportation and capital which cater to the needs of financial services medical devices life sciences pharmaceutical automotive software development and engineering industries . in 2011 ge ranked among the fortune 500 as the 68th largest firm in the u.s. by gross revenue 6 and the 14th most profitable . 7 as of 2012 update the company was listed the fourth largest in the world among the forbes global 2000 further metrics being taken into account . 8 the nobel prize has twice been awarded to employees of general electric irving langmuir in 1932 and ivar giaever in 1973 . 9 on january 13 2016 it was announced that ge will be moving its corporate headquarters to the south boston waterfront neighborhood of boston massachusetts . some of the workers will arrive in the summer of 2016 and the full move will be completed by 2018 . 10 11 12 contents 1 history 1.1 formation 1.2 public company 1.3 rca 1.4 television 1.5 power generation 1.6 computing 1.7 acquisitions and divestments 2 stock 3 corporate affairs 3.1 ceo 3.2 businesses 3.3 corporate recognition and rankings 4 controversies and criticism 5 environmental record 5.1 pollution 5.1.1 pollution of the hudson river 5.1.2 pollution of the housatonic river 5.2 environmental initiatives 6 educational initiatives 7 content marketing campaign 8 legal issues 9 political affiliation 10 notable appearances in media 10.1 fortune 500 11 see also 12 references 13 further reading 14 external links history further information general electric timeline formation general electric in schenectady ny aerial view 1896 plan of schenectady plant 1896 13 general electric building at 570 lexington avenue new york during 1889 thomas edison had business interests in many electricity related companies edison lamp company a lamp manufacturer in east newark new jersey ; edison machine works a manufacturer of dynamos and large electric motors in schenectady new york ; bergmann & company a manufacturer of electric lighting fixtures sockets and other electric lighting devices ; and edison electric light company the patent holding company and the financial arm backed by j.p. morgan and the vanderbilt family for edison s lighting experiments . 14 in 1889 drexel morgan & co. a company founded by j.p. morgan and anthony j. drexel financed edison s research and helped merge those companies under one corporation to form edison general electric company which was incorporated in new york on april 24 1889 . the new company also acquired sprague electric railway & motor company in the same year . 15 16 at about the same time charles coffin leading the thomson houston electric company acquired a number of competitors and gained access to their key patents . general electric was formed through the 1892 merger of edison general electric company of schenectady new york and thomson houston electric company of lynn massachusetts with the support of drexel morgan & co. 16 both plants continue to operate under the ge banner to this day . 17 the company was incorporated in new york with the schenectady plant used as headquarters for many years thereafter . around the same time general electric s canadian counterpart canadian general electric was formed . public company in 1896 general electric was one of the original 12 companies listed on the newly formed dow jones industrial average . after 120 years it is the only one of the original companies still listed on the dow index although it has not been on the index continuously . 18 a 23 ton diesel electric locomotive made at the general electric corp. plant in schenectady new york in 1911 general electric absorbed the national electric lamp association nela into its lighting business . ge established its lighting division headquarters at nela park in east cleveland ohio . nela park is still the headquarters for ge s lighting business . rca main article rca owen d. young through ge founded the radio corporation of america rca in 1919 to further international radio . ge used rca as its retail arm for radio sales from 1919 when ge began production until separation in 1930 . 19 rca quickly grew into an industrial giant in its own right . television in 1927 ernst alexanderson of ge made the first demonstration of his television broadcasts 20 at his general electric realty plot home at 1132 adams rd schenectady ny . on january 13 1928 he made what was said to be the first broadcast to the public in the united states 20 on ge s w2xad the pictures were picked up on 1.5 square inch 9.7 square centimeter screens in the homes of four ge executives . the sound was broadcast on ge s wgy am . experimental television station w2xad evolved into station wrgb which along with wgy and wgfm now wrve was owned and operated by general electric until 1983 . power generation main article ge energy see also ge wind energy ge s history of working with turbines in the power generation field gave them the engineering know how to move into the new field of aircraft turbosuperchargers . citation needed led by sanford alexander moss ge introduced the first superchargers during world war i and continued to develop them during the interwar period . superchargers became indispensable in the years immediately prior to world war ii and ge was the world leader in exhaust driven supercharging when the war started . this experience in turn made ge a natural selection to develop the whittle w. 1 jet engine that was demonstrated in the united states in 1941 . 21 ge ranked ninth among united states corporations in the value of wartime production contracts . 22 although their early work with whittle s designs was later handed to allison engine company ge aviation emerged as one of the world s largest engine manufacturers bypassing the british company rolls royce plc. in 2002 ge acquired the windpower assets of enron during its bankruptcy proceedings . 23 enron wind was the only surviving u.s. manufacturer of large wind turbines at the time and ge increased engineering and supplies for the wind division and doubled the annual sales to 1.2 billion in 2003 . 24 it acquired scanwind in 2009 . 25 some consumers boycotted ge light bulbs refrigerators and other products in the 1980s and 1990s to protest ge s role in nuclear weapons production . 26 computing with ibm the largest burroughs ncr control data corporation honeywell rca and univac ge was one of the eight major computer companies of the 1960s . ge had a line of general purpose and special purpose computers . among them were the ge 200 ge 400 and ge 600 series general purpose computers the ge 4010 ge 4020 and ge 4060 real time process control computers the datanet 30 and datanet 355 message switching computers datanet 30 and 355 were also used as front end processors for ge mainframe computers . a datanet 500 computer was designed but never sold . in 1962 ge started developing its gecos later renamed gcos operating system originally for batch processing but later extended to timesharing and transaction processing . versions of gcos are in use today . from 1964 to 1969 ge and bell laboratories which soon dropped out joined with mit to develop the multics operating system on the ge 645 mainframe computer . the project took longer than expected and was not a major commercial success but it demonstrated concepts such as single level store dynamic linking hierarchical file system and ring oriented security . active development of multics continued until 1985 . it has been said that ge got into computer manufacturing because in the 1950s they were the largest user of computers outside the united states federal government aside from being the first business in the world to own a computer . its major appliance manufacturing plant appliance park was the first non governmental site to host one . 27 however in 1970 ge sold its computer division to honeywell exiting the computer manufacturing industry though it retained its timesharing operations for some years afterwards . ge was a major provider of computer timesharing services through general electric information services geis now gxs offering online computing services that included genie . in 2000 when united technologies corp. planned to buy honeywell ge made a counter offer that was approved by honeywell . 28 on july 3 2001 the european union issued a statement that prohibit the proposed acquisition by general electric co. of honeywell inc. . 29 the reasons given were it would create or strengthen dominant positions on several markets and that the remedies proposed by ge were insufficient to resolve the competition concerns resulting from the proposed acquisition of honeywell . 29 on june 27 2014 ge partnered with collaborative design company quirky to announce its connected led bulb called link . the link bulb is designed to communicate with smartphones and tablets using a mobile app called wink . 30 acquisitions and divestments see also general electric timeline in 1986 ge reacquired rca primarily for the nbc television network also parent of telemundo communications group . the remainder was sold to various companies including bertelsmann bertelsmann acquired rca records and thomson sa which traces its roots to thomson houston one of the original components of ge . also in 1986 kidder peabody & co. a u.s. based securities firm was sold to ge and following heavy losses was sold to painewebber in 1994 . in 2002 francisco partners and norwest venture partners acquired a division of ge called ge information systems geis . the new company named gxs is based in gaithersburg maryland . gxs is a provider of b2b e commerce solutions . ge maintains a minority stake in gxs . also in 2002 ge wind energy was formed when ge bought the wind turbine manufacturing assets of enron wind after the enron scandals . 24 31 32 in 2004 ge bought 80 % of universal pictures from vivendi . vivendi bought 20 % of nbc forming the company nbcuniversal . ge then owned 80 % of nbc universal and vivendi owned 20 % . by january 28 2011 ge owned 49 % and comcast 51 % . on march 19 2013 comcast bought ge s shares in nbcu for 16.7 billion . 33 in 2004 ge completed the spin off of most of its mortgage and life insurance assets into an independent company genworth financial based in richmond