<p>It reorted a third-quarter profit of $2.49 billion, or 23 cents per share, compared with earnings of $4.31 billion, or 43 cents per share, a year earlier. Revenue fell 20 per cent to $37.8 billion.<br /><br />The company has been cutting back its GE Capital finance arm, which had invested heavily in commercial real estate and has been hard hit by the credit crunch.<br />After plumbing 18-year lows in March, GE shares are now up about 4 per cent so far this year, trailing the 15 per cent rise of the Dow Jones industrial average.</p>
<p>It reorted a third-quarter profit of $2.49 billion, or 23 cents per share, compared with earnings of $4.31 billion, or 43 cents per share, a year earlier. Revenue fell 20 per cent to $37.8 billion.<br /><br />The company has been cutting back its GE Capital finance arm, which had invested heavily in commercial real estate and has been hard hit by the credit crunch.<br />After plumbing 18-year lows in March, GE shares are now up about 4 per cent so far this year, trailing the 15 per cent rise of the Dow Jones industrial average.</p>