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General Electric Gets Hit With An Antitrust Lawsuit and a CEO Resigns in Disgrace
Welcome to Ticker History, where every stock has a story.
David Prince
March 05, 2025
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Welcome back, Ticker Historians.
What happened last week? A lot, actually.
President Trump met with Ukrainian President Zelensky to sign a deal to aid their war effort, and it went as well as a WWE contract signing.
A glitch in the Instagram algorithm promoted NSFW content of murder and violence. Whoops?
The FAA announced it will begin partnering with Elon Musk’s Starlink as its main service provider.
OpenAI debuted ChatGPT- 4.5, described by CEO Sam Altman as a “giant, expensive model”.
Jeff Bezos’ flight company Blue Origin announced a planned all-female space flight featuring Katy Perry and Gayle King for some reason.
In January, we visited the 24th Annual National Stock & Bond Show in Washington, DC to learn about the hobby of Scripophily – the collecting of historical stock and bond certificates to meet dealers and explore their collections. Check out our YouTube channel for a recap from the show!
As always, stay bullish.
Own a piece of Wall Street history. Check out the Ticker History Shop for stock certificates from your favorite companies.
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March 3, 1911: The DoJ goes after General Electric 📅
In 1911, The Department of Justice almost killed off General Electric.
Almost.
As part of larger antitrust efforts, President William Taft’s DoJ sued General Electric to break them into smaller companies and end their chokehold on the electrical industry.
A political cartoon from 1910 shows monopolistic practices affecting employees and consumers.
GE $G had a near monopoly on the industry at that point, restricting competition, controlling the supply chain, and price fixing. The Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890 served as the foundation for the DoJ’s case.
It ended in a settlement- GE was allowed to continue as a single company, but had to license out its patents to other companies to allow for competitors to enter the industry.
In an ironic twist, the settlement actually benefitted GE- licensing its patents was a major source of revenue for the company as the industry evolved over the coming decades.
Later in 1911, the U.S. Supreme Court would rule that John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil Company was also in violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act and was broken up into 34 smaller companies, including what is now known as ExxonMobil XOM ( ▲ 2.07% ) , BP BP ( ▼ 0.53% ) , and Chevron CVX ( ▲ 1.42% ) .
This Week In Ticker History 📅
March 3, 1989 Time Inc. and Warner Communications announced plans to merge, forming Time Warner. This would set the stage for America Online and Time Warner merging in 2000, one of the largest (and worst) mergers in history. |  The newly formed corporation’s headquarters. |
March 6, 1980 Polaroid CEO and founder Edwin H. Land, resigned in shame after massive financial losses from the Polavision video camera system. The Polavision video format was a distant third to VHS and Betamax, requiring a dedicated device to watch the footage. Consumers, however, did not dedicate. |  Polaroid founder and CEO Edwin H. Land holding an instantly developed photo of himself in the 1970’s. |
March 4, 1989 Eastern Airlines pilots, flight attendents, and baggage workers walked off the job to protest pay cuts. The airline subsequently filed for bankruptcy protection five days later, eventually closing down in 1991. |  Pilots walking through New York’s JFK airport show their displeasure with Eastern management. |
March 9, 2021 Microsoft MSFT ( ▼ 1.03% ) completes its acquisition of video game maker Bethesda, for $7.5 billion. This brought properties like Doom, Fallout, and Elder Scrolls under the Microsoft and Xbox umbrella. |  Doom Eternal brought in over $330 million in revenue for Bethesda one year before the purchase |
Every Stock Has A Story 📅
Thousands of people across the country were getting tuberculosis and typhoid from contaminated milk.
To save their industry, dairy farmers needed to come together.
The Co-Operative Pure Milk Association was a coordinated effort by Midwestern dairy farmers to create a unified set of hygeine standards to raise consumer confidence in milk safety.
Though pasteurization had been invented 50 years prior, it wasn’t readily available for small farms in remote areas. In banding together to agree on how to collect, store, and ship their milk, customers began to trust what they were drinking.
The company that is known today as Land O’Lakes was originally a rival dairy farmer collective to the Co-Operative Pure Milk Association.
Looking Forward 📅
That’s old news. What can we look forward to this week?
Costco COST ( ▼ 2.02% ) and Best Buy BBY ( ▲ 4.07% ) report earnings, giving us a look into how the retail industry is responding to inflation and threats of tariffs.
On March 7, the unemployment rate and average hourly earnings reports are released.
Logitech LOGI ( ▼ 1.22% ) and Zscaler ZS ( ▲ 2.91% ) hold investor days next week, making ARK Funds CEO Cathie Woods antsy.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre is schedule to appear on The View, her first major interview since taking the role.
Is Lady Gaga still relevant? Guess we’ll find out- she has a new album dropping next week.
Stay safe, stay warm, and stay bullish. |
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