GE Appliances unit up for sale

The ad shown here is obviously a spoof, but it appears that the venerable GE Appliances business is up for sale. Fairfield, Connecticut-based General Electric Co., is looking to offload the century-old appliances unit in a move to invigorate the parent company, which has more than $170 billion in annual revenue, according to news reports on May 14, 2008.

GE has hired investment bank Goldman Sachs to run the auction for the appliances group, which is based in Louisville, Kentucky. Possible buyers, according to The Wall Street Journal, include Germany's BSH Bosch, Siemens Hausgeräte GmbH, Mexico's Controladora Mabe SA (GE's partner in that country), China's Haier Group, and private-equity firms.

Whether you are on the short list of potential GE Appliances buyers or just in the market for new appliances for your kitchen or laundry room, read how GE products stack up against the competition in a few key appliance categories:

GE's top-loading WJRE5500G[WW] washer earned a CR Best Buy in our latest report on washers and dryers, thanks to its performance and $480 price tag. But top-loaders from Maytag, Whirlpool, and Fisher & Paykel all ranked ahead of GE in the Ratings. GE does better in the dryer department. Its DBVH512EF[WW] and Profile DPSE810EG[WT] electric dryers are CR Best Buys, and only LG and Kenmore are ahead in the Ratings.

For gas ranges, four GE models cracked the top 10 in our current Ratings. In electric ranges, GE has five of the top 10 models, including a pair of innovative double ovens, the PB970SM[SS] and PB975SM[SS].

When it comes to refrigerators, the GE GSH25JFT[WW] side-by-side sits fourth in our latest Ratings and with a reasonable $1,000 sticker price is a CR Best Buy. Among bottom-freezers, GE slips to the fifth spot, with its Profile PFSF6PKW[WW].

A major concern with all appliances is reliability, and GE products tend to do well in our Brand Repair History assessments, which are based on thousands of responses to the Annual Product Reliability Survey conducted by the Consumer Reports National Research Center.

Here at the Home & Garden blog, one of our jobs is to help you find the best appliances for your home. As for whether it's a smart move for a company to buy the GE appliances division, we'll leave that decision to the titans of Wall Street.—Daniel DiClerico and Steven H. Saltzman