Among the five he took with him was Sharon Pipe, a managing director for GE Equity in Europe.

FORBES: GE's brain drain

In early July GE Equity's dealmakers started to quit.

FORBES: GE's brain drain

Welch reviews GE Equity stakes bigger than that.

FORBES: GE's brain drain

She worked as a lawyer at Wall Street firm Skadden, Arps and then as a venture capitalist at GE Equity in Hong Kong, leaving in 1999 to run a small responsible-investment private equity fund, Maven International, in the city.

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GE, it turns out, the Genworth operations were making a return on equity of only 9%, half what good companies manage and less than the 12% earned by the typical life insurer.

ECONOMIST: Genworth: Out and up | The

With GE shares 28% lower now, Immelt can't go back to the equity market for more money.

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Clearly companies like Comcast and GE, are mindful of that reality in an environment where investors look to the equity market for yield due to the paltry rates on many fixed-income instruments like U.S. Treasuries.

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