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Comment by throwaway894345 | Hacker News Reader

> Sort of strange to realize that a lightbulb company has a bigger subsidiary that sells financial services. It's more profitable to make money selling money than manufacturing lightbulbs.

GE sells a lot more than lightbulbs and financial products.

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>GE sells a lot more than lightbulbs

:-)

With a "lightbulb company", I was just using a rhetorical device of describing something in banal and obvious adjectives to the average consumer to contrast it with something non-obvious.

E.g. The "hamburger company" McDonald's is actually one of the largest real estate holders that makes more money from land rent than food. Adding later clarifications of "McDonalds sells more than just hamburgers such as salads and eggs in English muffins" isn't necessary for most readers.

To be precise on the McDonald's thing, it rents the land to the franchises and extracts the franchisee profits that way as no doubt it's tax efficient.

How is it tax efficient? Why do all franchisors not behave in the same manner? The land under hotels are very rarely owned by the hotel brands themselves.

I thought the real reason was to exert control over franchisors, so that in the event of a McDonald’s going rogue they can revoke the lease and end the franchise.

>so that in the event of a McDonald’s going rogue they can revoke the lease and end the franchise

Why they can't revoke the franchise agreement?

Sure they can, the amount of money generated from these actions you honestly believe McDonald's doesn't have the best contract lawyers to enforce their TOS.

Play by Mc D's rules or no happy meal for you....

They do both, but revoking the lease allows for far greater control I believe

It is to stop a franchise rebranding themselves as Golden Arches, selling their own food to the existing customer base and not kicking the franchise money back to corporate HQ. Versions of which happen a lot when an established franchise owner realizes they can make more money by no longer paying for the franchise branding and infrastructure (lose 10% customers, gain 25% revenue, profit!)

The switcharoo is really common with smaller franchised brands. A few years on the original contract, then do a quick brand change overnight or contract with a similar competitor. I see it all the time around where I live it’s kind of hilarious.

“Welcome to Totally A Different Hot Dog Joint! The menu is 99% the same!”

Yes. The statement 'makes more money from rent than from sales of food' is dubious if the rent is paid by food sales.

GE doesn’t sell light bulbs any more. The name is licensed the way it used to be for IBM laptops.

https://www.npr.org/2020/05/27/863378300/general-electric-ma...

>GE sells a lot more than lightbulbs and financial products

They designed the GAU 8 Avenger that's used on the A-10 "Warthog" along with a bunch of other modern Gatling guns.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/GAU-8_Avenger

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