GE Healthcare profits drop in FY2009, Q4

While GE's corporate earnings dropped 19 percent from the fiscal year of 2009, its healthcare segment dropped 15 percent in 2009 compared to the previous fiscal year.

In 2009, GE Healthcare posted revenues of $16 billion, compared to $17.39 billion in the comparable prior year—representing an 8 percent drop. In the fourth quarter of 2009, the healthcare division reported revenues of $4.7 billion, compared to $4.8 billion in the year-ago quarter fourth quarter of 2008—representing a 2 percent drop.

GE Healthcare, which falls within GE’s technology infrastructure segment, said its 2009 profits were $2.4 billion, compared with $2.85 billion in 2008, indicating a 15 percent dip. The healthcare segment also posted a 3 percent drop in profits, reporting $911 million, for the fourth quarter of 2009, compared with the prior-year quarter.

“Our healthcare business experienced solid orders growth and enters 2010 with a higher backlog than last year,” GE’s Chairman and CEO Jeff Immelt said.

“During the difficult economy of 2009, we took a series of actions to improve GE so that we would be positioned for growth in the future,” Immelt said. “We have repositioned GE Capital to be safer and more focused. We have lowered our cost base and simplified our portfolio. At the same time, we grew GE R&D [spending] by 7 percent.”