GE without light bulbs puts focus on other industrial spare parts

It’s light (bulbs) out at General Electric Co. Almost 140 years after GE founder Thomas Edison developed the first practical incandescent light bulb, the industrial giant is considering parting with its consumer lighting business, according to the Wall Street Journal. Frankly, it’s been a long time coming and is more of a symbolic step than anything else: The unit’s reported potential sale price of about $500 million amounts to just 0.2% of GE’s current market value. But symbolism matters at a company like GE, whose long history has included a series of evolutions.