GE CEO PROMISES “MAJOR CHANGES” IN EARNINGS CALL

Results for the latest quarter are “completely unacceptable,” General Electric CEO John Flannery told investors Friday as he slashed the profit forecast and pledged to unload $20 billion of businesses. “We need to make some major changes with urgency and a depth of purpose,” he said.

Flannery, who took over Jeffrey Immelt’s longtime post less than three months ago, is plotting a dramatic overhaul at the maker of jet engines and ultrasound machines. Already, he has welcomed a representative of activist investor Trian Fund Management to GE’s board and announced major management changes. He’s seeking deeper cost cuts, and investors are bracing to see if GE cuts its dividend for only the second time since the Great Depression.

“Everything is on the table,” Flannery said on a conference call about quarterly earnings. “Things will not stay the same at GE.”

The new CEO will detail his plans to reshape the Boston-based company at an investor meeting Nov. 13. The company is grappling with challenges from poor cash flows to slumping power-generation markets. GE is mired in one of the deepest slides in the company’s history and is the worst performer by far in the Dow Jones industrial average this year.

Flannery said he sees a path to recovery and the comments registered with investors. After falling the most intraday in two years in early trading, the shares began erasing losses during the conference call and eventually turned slightly positive. — Bloomberg News