Compare and Contrast of Business of General Electronic and Time Warner Purchase of Aol

Introduction

Diversification refers to the strategies that are used by the firms to expand their business in the international market through entering in the new market. At the business level and corporate level, firm can diversify their business in the international market. Various firms in the competitive marketplace expand their business. Some firms gain success and some face failure to expand their business. For this paper, GE (General Electronic) and Time Warner purchase of AOL is selected that diversified their business to expand their business in all over the market. There will be discussion about the core business, size of firms, outcomes, reasons of different outcomes, etc. in this paper.

Compare and Contrast

Compare and contrast of business of GE (General Electronic) and Time Warner purchase of AOL are as follow:

Core business: Core business refers to the main theme of the firm in that the firm is running its business. To provide technical products from jet engine to power engine is included under the core business of GE. The firm operates in four segments in that the firm is running its business that are energy, capital finance, customer & industrial and technological infrastructure. To expand the business, the firm diversified its business in television broadcasting and financial services (Global Ergonomics is Core Business at GE, 2011). Time Warner/AOL is result of merger of both firms. At the same time, to provide effective internet and mass media services is included in the core business of Time Warner/AOL (Albanesius, 2009).

To attain good position in the industry is the main aim of core business of GE (General Electronic) and Time Warner/AOL that is similar. Similarities between core businesses of both firms are that both firm focus on the customer satisfaction to enhance their business. Additionally, expansion to increase sales and profitability is also included under the aim of core business of both firms (Sueyoshi, Goto & Shang, 2009).

Size: GE (General Electronic) and Time Warner/AOL both firms are large in size and expand their business in the international market. Both firms has strong base of employees and image in the global marketplace that is similar for both firms (Meet our people, 2011). At the same time, it is identified that about 2, 87,000 employees are working in GE in all over the market. Time Warner/AOL has strong base of skilled employees at the time of merger of both firms (Albanesius, 2009).

Financial: It is found that GE (General Electronic) and Time Warner/AOL both firms has strong financial position in the competitive marketplace. It is because, GE expand its business in different areas such as television broadcasting and financial services (Press Releases, 2008). At the same time, to expand business in media and internet market, merger between Time Warner