Published 15:22 IST, January 6th 2021

Fact Check: Was General Electric sold to China? Who owns General Electric?

Fact Check on whether the American company General Electric was sold to China? Read on to know the facts about the latest Facebook meme that went viral.

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A Facebook meme was recently in circulation on social media where it stated that American company General Electric is going to be sold off to China for 5.4 billion dollars. meme n asked viewers a question stating "Americans are you concerned yet?" Facebook post was shared by a user named Hal Downing, who posted meme on December 23, 2020. However, meme was circulated all over social media and is under viewer's attention till now. Here is a fact check on wher General Electric was sold to China. Check out how viewers seem to be reacting based on this rumour.

Hal Downing

Image credits: Facebook

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Was General Electric sold to China?

According to Fact Check analysis, Facebook post is technically wrong.
truth is that U.S. giant G.E. h actually sold off one of its subsidiaries called GE Appliances in 2016. Chinese company Haier h n bought General Electric Appliances division for 5.4 billion dollars. Since 2016, GE appliances are owned by Haier. Haier can use GE brand name until 2056 util ir contract.
point to be noted here is that Chinese company Haier now owns one of G.E.'s subsidiaries and not entire company. As of now, re are no upcoming deals that state that whole company is going to be sold off to Chinese company.
Snopes indicates that words written on meme "Americans, are you concerned yet?", could be in reference to conspiracy ories that indicate that re are some alleged connections between Biden and China.
Some or posts by same Facebook user, who shared this Facebook meme even indicate that user is using medium to oppose Democrats, stating that y are owned by China. His posts also indicate that Biden won presidential elections as Democrats colluded with China and used Chinese-me ballots to le to Biden's victory. However, re is no solid proof of same and all of se are currently a part of conspiracy ories.

Nick ams

Image credits: Facebook

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Who owns General Electric?

American multinational conglomerate company General Electric Company (GE) was founded by Charles A. Coffin, Elihu Thomson, Edwin J. Houston, Thomas Edison, and J. P. Morgan on April 15, 1892. company is hequartered at Boston, Massachusetts, U.S. H. Lawrence Culp Jr. acts as Chairman & CEO of company. conglomerated deals with a wide range of products from Aircraft engines, Electrical distribution, Software etc.

Since GE was incorporated in 1896, it has been a publicly-tred company which is now tred on New York Stock Exchange, this is where investors buy and sell ir GE stocks from. Top 10 owners of General Electric company include stockholders such as T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc., Vanguard Group, Inc., BlackRock Fund visors, SSgA Funds Management, Inc., Fidelity Management & Research Co. LLC, Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC, Eagle Capital Management LLC, Geode Capital Management LLC, Norrn Trust Investments, Inc. and Pzena Investment Management LLC.

Google Trends

According to Google Trends, maximum number of people to have searched about wher General Electric was sold to China or not was highest on January 5th. Facebook meme has been circulated all over internet as Trends have skyrocketed in few days. current trends show that people are still talking about rumour. Check out this graph.