When was General Electric founded?

General Electric was formed (hence founded) 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.

Thomas Edison had business interests in many electricity-related companies:(Edison Lamp Company, Edison Machine Works, Bergmann & Company, Edison Electric Light Company). Edison Electric Light was the patent-holding company backed by J.P. Morgan and the Vanderbilt family for Edison's lighting experiments.

In 1889, J.P. Morgan's company financed Edison's research and helped merge Edison's companies into one corporation (the Edison General Electric Company) and incorporated it on April 24, 1889. They also acquired Sprague Electric Railway & Motor Company in the same year.

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.

These two companies merged in 1892 and GE was born!

In 1896, General Electric was one of the original 12 companies listed on the newly formed Dow Jones Industrial Average. After 119 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.

More Info: en.wikipedia.org

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10 Comments

Edie Koller

Thomas Edison was one of the four founders. I did a book report on him in mid 1950's.

Joseph A. Robitaille

Great question and explanation.

Marian Spitzig

This is the only one to make any sense to me.

Rob Farr

That date was the most reasonable choice for me ... others were either too early, a little too early or too late.

anthonygriffin

"General Electric," has had an pretty good overall reputation for quite sometime. But when the company was under the leadership of former CEO Jack Welch, back during the " Bill Clinton Administration" in the 1990's. The company was hit with hefty fines for allegedly dumping "PCP's" into the ocean, as part of way of getting rid of the wasted materials of "General Electric." The company also had to clean-up that mess it made at sea as well.