GE's Next Shoe to Drop: An Alstom Writedown?

General Electric Co. has been rocked by one piece of bad news after another, and it's now become a guessing game as to what the next disappointment might be. Here's my prediction: a writedown tied to its 2015 acquisition of Alstom SA's energy assets.

The purchase was one of the largest ever by GE, ultimately weighing in at about $10 billion after adjusting for joint ventures and other changes the industrial giant agreed to in order to win signoff from the French government. Announcing the takeover in 2014, John Flannery -- one of the deal's chief architects as GE's head of business development at the time and now the company's CEO -- called it "a highly strategic acquisition" in a power sector that "has excellent long-term growth prospects." Like many of GE's deals, it hasn't worked out as planned.