Embattled GE to spin off health care

General Electric said Tuesday that it planned to spin off its enormous health care business and sell its multibillion-dollar stake in Baker Hughes, a major producer of oil field equipment, as part of a sweeping reshaping of the embattled industrial titan.

The announcement Tuesday concludes a long review by GE’s management, including new chief executive John Flannery, into the once mighty corporate icon. The conglomerate had amassed a stunning collection of sometimes uncollected businesses, selling products as varied as power turbines and other industrial equipment to light bulbs and storebranded credit cards.

But over the past decade, what once had been one of corporate America’s most treasured companies has become one of its sickest. Its profits have slumped and it has suffered an embarrassing array of operational problems, including an unexpected charge in its financial unit this year.

Even the company’s use of corporate jets — and in particular the use of an empty second jet to follow the one that carried Jeffrey Immelt, GE’s previous chief executive — had been criticized as wasteful.

All that has weighed heavily on GE shares, which have fallen 51 percent over the past 12 months.

Since taking over last year, Flannery has pledged to streamline the conglomerate and overhaul its management. That review, he said, would include no sacred cows.

Part of that has involved a multiyear effort to shrink the company, including paring back its GE Capital unit and selling off an array of divisions.