The house that Jack built

[Carl Remick]

Certainly no greater cult of personality exists than the one that has grown 
up around GE CEO Jack Welch, who has received an advance of $7.1 million 
from Time Warner for a book about his career and philosophy.

In an editorial entitled "The Welsh Mystique," the NY Times yesterday summed 
up Welch's career this way:  "He took a company with a market value of $12 
billion and [in 20 years] turned it into a company worth $500 billion.  
Along the way he sold off underperforming divisions and fired about 100,000 
people, thus earning himself the name 'Neutron Jack.'"

The NYT clearly thinks the tradeoff was worth it, since Welch's gung-ho 
management style "freed [GE] of fuzzy paternalism."

Waddya think LBOers -- is $488B in added market cap worth 100K pink slips 
and freedom from fuzziness?

Carl
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