While GE became an industrial colossus? At the time of both firms founding, they were about equal…but Westinghouse had the edge in patents…George Westinhouse pioneered AC electric power, while GE stuck withn Edison’s DC system.
Now, a century later, GE is among the top industrial firms in the world…while WESTINHOUSE is jsut about dead…in fact I think they are just a name, slappedon cheap, chinese-made appliances…
So what went wrong? Why did WESTINGHOUSE fail?
I used to work for the old circle bar W. Back then I was in the division that made airborn radar. There’s something weird about working for a company that makes toasters and parts for fighter jets. Anyway, I never cared much about what happened outside of my building so others can probably tell you in more detail, but at the time westinghouse was abandoning a lot of its original businesses, even the power generation (although they are still in the nuclear power plant business), in favor of buying up more profitable ventures. They were getting very heavily into the broadcast business, and when I left they were still a huge freakin company. The division I worked for got sold to Northrop Grumman, and I’m sure there have been numerous other changes, but to say westinghouse has failed is a bit incorrect.
Accordng to this ,it’s now CBS.
Just another of the merger fevered 80s/90s phenomenon.Hard to tell the players without a scorecard.Kind of funny Letterman went from GE to Westinghouse.