What Makes a Media Giant? This Is It!

Vivendi Group was in dire straits, and Wall Street was buzzing with excitement.

Likewise, some people had their eyes on Vivendi Group's subsidiaries, such as Universal Pictures, which occupied a central place in its business.

Zucker had his sights set on Universal Pictures and wanted to acquire it.

Did no one else have any ideas?

Of course they did!

In fact, when news of Vivendi Group's troubles broke, Zucker was far from the only one eyeing Universal Pictures. General Electric Company was among them.

When people mentioned General Electric Company, many immediately thought of its founder.

That's right!

The company's founder was none other than the renowned "Wizard of Invention," Thomas Edison!

General Electric Company was founded in 1878. Thanks to its many patents, it quickly grew into a major company. Later, the Morgan Consortium, with its vast financial resources, got involved, turning General Electric into a monopolistic giant.

A Fortune Global 500 company?

Heh. Before the rise of internet giants, General Electric Company was a regular on the Fortune Global 500 list. More accurately, it had almost never fallen out of the top ten.

It had hundreds of thousands of employees around the world, with offices and branches in over a hundred countries and regions. It was one of the world's largest diversified service companies, spanning everything from aircraft engine research and manufacturing, power generation equipment, and financial services to medical imaging, television programming, and plastics...

Financial Group, Business Financing Group, Energy Group, Healthcare Group, Infrastructure Group, Transportation Group...

Without a doubt, it was a giant corporation!

(As an aside, General Electric Company and General Motors are not the same company.)

In May 2002, Fortune magazine ranked General Electric Company fifth among the Fortune Global 500 companies.

That June, Bloomberg also ranked General Electric Company sixth among the world's