Appliance Design - July 2008 - (Page 7)

NEwS watch BSh GEtS NEw cEO. BSH Home Appliances of Huntington Beach, Calif., has named Michael Traub its new president and CEO. Traub replaces Franz Joseph Bosshard who was chosen to manage global business development for the BSH Group. Bosshard will report directly to the chairman of the board of management and CEO of Bosch and Siemens GE tO UNlOaD aPPlIaNcES In mid-May, the General Electric Co., Fairfield, Conn., announced that it was “reviewing strategic options” for its appliance business, which is based in Louisville. The company said it was considering three possibilities: a strategic partnership or joint venture; a spin off; or an outright sale of the business. In the announcement, GE Chairman and CEO Jeff Immelt noted that GE Appliances, while a very strong brand with great distribution, was primarily a U.S. business, whose fortunes were too dependent on the rise and fall of a single market. A week after the announcement, Immelt named five appliance manufacturers that would be obvious potential bidders for GE’s appliance business: Haier of China, LG Electronics of South Korea, Sweden’s Electrolux, Arcelik in Turkey, and Mexico’s Controladora Mabe. None of the named companies confirmed any interest at the time of the statement. Industry analysts have estimated that GE’s appliance business could sell for $4 billion to $8 billion. In U.S. business, it ranks second to Whirlpool. In a letter to industry media, Dave Bilas, vice president of sales for GE Appliances, asked publications to remind their readers that GE Appliances was not going out of business, that the strategic options being considered are, in fact, designed to help grow the business. Bilas said that the target date to complete the change of ownership is the end of the year. In addition, Bilas said that he and Jim Campbell, president and CEO of the appliance business, along with the rest of the management team, will be going with the appliance business wherever it ends up. < Home Appliances Group, Kurt-Ludwig Gutberlet. Traub returns to the U.S. after serving four years as CEO of BSH Latin America. Prior to that, he served as the Bosch Group’s vice president for International Sales based in Munich. Before joining BSH in 1997, Traub worked for the Bosch Group in various roles and was headquartered in Stuttgart, Germany, High-Speed Value Problem: Cut thermal control costs without affecting reliability in inductive applications. 1 Involve a Pepi® sales engineer 2 Choose the right control 3 Customize to meet application needs Solution: Valstat™ thermal controls are in stock to lower costs and speed availability. Same Pepi® reliability. An even bigger value. There are a number of considerations that go into specing the right control for your application. If your biggest concern is cost, visit: www.pepiusa.com/prototype.html Only Pepi® thermostats and thermal protectors offer so many options in ﬁt, conﬁguration, cost and customization. For a close look send for our new Disc-Type and Conductive-Type Catalogs today. www.pepiusa.com Portage Electric Products, Inc. N. Canton, OH U.S.A. salesinfo@pepiusa.com • 1-888-GO4-PEPI www.applianceDESIGN.com applianceDESIGN July 2008 7 http://www.pepiusa.com/prototype.html http://www.pepiusa.com http://www.pepiusa.com http://www.appliancedesign.com

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Appliance Design - July 2008 Contents Editorial Shipments/Forecasts News Watch Heating Elements Gas Technology Motors & Pumps Controls & Sensors Design Marts Association Report: AHAM Advertiser's Index

Appliance Design - July 2008

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