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General Electric may sell division that makes lightbulbs

A customer shops for General Electric light bulbs at City Lights lighting store in San Francisco, California.
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Thomas Edison may have co-founded General Electric, but that doesn't mean the massive conglomerate isn't interested in selling its consumer-lighting division, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal.

Sources tell the Journal that the company is interviewing investment banks about possibly selling the massive division, which the sources say could go for $500 million. The deal would not include Current, GE's commercial LED lighting company.

As the Journal notes, the sale would be likely be less about the money and more about continuing GE's retreat from the consumer sector in favor of business-facing ventures. The most recent big move in this direction was the conglomerate selling its appliances division to Haier Group, a Chinese company, last year.

A GE representative told CNBC that the company doesn't comment on rumors.

Read more at The Wall Street Journal.

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