What is General Electric?
Source: Flickr/Jeffrey Turner
It seems like a simple question. And for most companies, it is.
If you asked me about Wal-Mart, General Motors, or Bank of America, I'd tell you they're in the business of retail, automotive manufacturing, and banking, respectively. I'm sure anyone would. These are household names, after all.
For the industrial giant General Electric, it's a little more complex. GE actually runs eight different businesses. Each and every one of them would be Fortune 500 companies on a stand-alone basis.
GE owns the sixth most valuable brand in the world, yet it makes scarcely any consumer-facing products outside of your everyday kitchen appliances.
So what is it that generated $146 billion in revenue for GE in 2013? Click on the slideshow below for a deep dive into this 122-year-old conglomerate.
GE's still on the bleeding edge
In the early 1900s GE pushed electricity to the forefront of industry and into the homes of thousands of Americans. Today, its driving force behind another powerful and pervasive technology: the industrial Internet. But GE's not the only company exploring this concept, and it might not be the one that benefits the most.
In fact, The Motley Fool's chief investment officer has identified a company poised to profit that he calls "the hidden winner behind the 'Internet of Everything'." It beat out hundreds of companies as our No. 1 stock for 2014, and it's identified in this special free report: "The Motley Fool's Top Stock for 2014." Just click here to access the report and find out the name of this under-the-radar company.
