Facebook Is Waiting in the Wings Should the Dow Braintrust Get Sick of GE
- Speculation, predictably, renews amid conglomerate’s travails
- Dow changes are decided by a committee, not according to rules
Herro Says GE Was Horrifically Run for the Last Decade
General Electric’s worst week in eight years is rekindling an age-old debate, namely, how bad can things get before your status in the Dow Jones Industrial Average is threatened? While kicking out the longest-standing member wouldn’t come easily for the gauge’s overseers, removal could pave the way for another whose time, many say, has come.
That’s Facebook Inc., whose dominance in social media has made it one of the largest publicly traded companies in the world. Unlike other Dow omissions such as Google parent Alphabet Inc. or Amazon.com Inc., whose $1,000 price tag is too high for the price-weighted average, Facebook, at $181, would fit relatively comfortably in the range of existing members.