Hitachi Denies Purchase Plans For GE's Appliance Business

May 27, 2008 7:39 a.m. EST

Tokyo, Japan (AHN) - Major multinational electronics chain Hitachi recently stated that it was in no way interested in purchasing the U.S.-based company General Electric.

The statement was made after the U.S. company announced a possibility of the company being up for grabs, a consideration that together with partnerships was brought up during a review of the company's current operations.

Despite the availability, however, Hitachi president Kazuo Furukawa publicly said that they were not interested in purchasing the company.

According to Mr. Furukawa, Hitachi's future will be focused on the expansion of its own operations, and that he intended to give attention to the company's own production line of hard disk drives, and flat screen TVs.

The AFP reported that Hitachi's products have suffered slumps in the technology market, with its flat-screen TVs continuously keeping the earnings in the low end - a trend that is expected to continue until March of next year.

Jeff Immelt, GE chairman and CEO, noted that the company's current, long-time operations have been anchored on the U.S. market. The chairman continued, in the process revealing hints of expressing hints of optimism towards ideas of international partnerships.

As reported by Domain-B, Immelt acknowledged that GE was "primarily a US business," and as a result holds profits that are "tied to the rise and fall of a single market."