U.S. regulators gave General Electric Co (GE.N) conditional approval to purchase Converteam, a French maker of high-efficiency motors for oil and gasoline refineries. The Justice Department said on Monday that it would require GE to sell Converteam Group SAS's Electric Machinery Holding Co to proceed with the $3.2 billion deal for a majority stake in the French company. "The divestiture will preserve the benefits of competition for refinery customers in the United States," said Sharis Pozen, the acting head of the Justice Department's antitrust division. "As originally proposed, the acquisition would have lessened the competition that currently exists among manufacturers of low-speed synchronous electric motors." GE and Converteam, both of which make the high-efficiency motors, are sometimes the only bidders when companies seek to buy the motors, the department said in a court filing.
General Electric Company (GE) is a diversified technology and financial services corporation. Shares of GE traded higher by 3.22% or $0.5/share to $16.04. In the past year, the shares have traded as low as $14.31 and as high as $21.65. On average, 65538100 shares of GE exchange hands on a given day and today's volume is recorded at 46878680.
Source
