General Electric Company. There are, or were, two companies of that name. First, there remains the rock-solid trillion dollar US company. Alas, the multi-million £ British company changed its name to Marconi, and proceeded to make a number of disastrous decisions, including selling off its "boring" defence and capital goods businesses, and buying telecommunications companies at a high price just before a collapse of the market for these goods. Shareholders in the British company have paid a high price in terms of destruction of value.