Company: GE
Filing Date: 2025-02-03
Form Type: 10-K
Source: 0000040545-25-000015
Chunk: 46

Company: GENERAL ELECTRIC CO
Filing Date: 2025-02-03
Form: 10-K
Item: Item 7
Chunk 46
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 or minimal degree of control over the business operations, which expose us to additional operational, financial, reputational, legal or compliance risks. Furthermore, as our and our joint venture partners’ strategies change or general conditions involving a joint venture and its intended purposes evolve, we may not be able to exit or wind down any unfavorable joint ventures on acceptable terms, without financial or other concessions to our joint venture partners or at all.

Recent spin-offs - The completed GE HealthCare and GE Vernova separations entail certain risks and potential liabilities, including the risk that one or both is determined to be a taxable transaction. The GE HealthCare and GE Vernova separations were effected through spin-offs that were intended to be tax-free for the Company and its shareholders for U.S. federal income tax purposes. If either of the GE HealthCare or GE Vernova separation transactions were ultimately determined to be taxable, the Company would incur a significant tax liability, and the distributions to the Company’s shareholders would become taxable and the new 

28 2024 FORM 10-K

independent companies might incur income tax liabilities. In addition, the Company may not achieve the anticipated benefits of the GE Vernova and GE HealthCare separations and may be exposed to additional risks, including potential liabilities pursuant to agreements entered into in connection with the spin-offs, the credit support provided to GE Vernova (see the Other Items – GE Vernova Parent Company Guarantees section within MD&A) and the various restructuring and business transformation actions that have brought changes across the Company’s organizational structure, senior leadership, functional alignment, outsourcing and other areas. Any of these risks could result in a material adverse effect on the Company’s business, reputation, results of operations, financial condition and cash flows.

Intellectual property - Our intellectual property portfolio may not prevent others from independently developing products and services comparable or competitive to ours, and we may be negatively impacted by intellectual property enforcement or external dependencies. Our patents and other intellectual property may not prevent others from independently developing or selling products and services comparable or competitive to ours, and there can be no assurance that the resources invested by us to protect our intellectual property will be sufficient to adequately deter infringement, misappropriation or other improper use of our technology, particularly in certain markets outside the U.S. where strong intellectual property protection mechanisms are lacking. Trademark licenses of the GE brand in connection with dispositions, including in connection with the separations of GE HealthCare and GE Vernova into independent companies, may negatively impact the overall value of the brand in the future.