Yet the history books should look kindly on Patrick Kron, the former chief executive of French industrial giant Alstom SA. Even after distributing 1.2 billion euros in dividends, the company will have about 1.1 billion euros in net cash. It booked 12 billion euros of new orders last year, an increase of more than two-thirds. My colleague Brooke Sutherland has written extensively on what a disaster the Alstom deal was for the U.S. conglomerate. With demand for gas turbines collapsing, GE announced an epic $23 billion writedown in October, most of which related to the Alstom deal.

Source: Washington Post May 07, 2019 12:56 UTC