(May 14) (Bloomberg) -- General Electric Co. may sell, spin off or seek a partner for its large-appliance unit, ending more than a century in an industry that helped make GE a household name, people familiar with the situation said.

Fairfield, Connecticut-based GE, the biggest maker of appliances such as refrigerators and washers for new U.S. homes, hired Goldman Sachs Group Inc. to explore options and conduct an auction, one of the people said. A sale may bring in $5 billion to $8 billion, the Wall Street Journal reported earlier today.

Chief Executive Jeffrey Immelt, who took over from Jack Welch in 2001 and was jolted by a profit decline last quarter, has been paring units tied to the consumer as the U.S. economy slows and homes sales plummet. The businesses being sold aren't growing fast enough to help GE reach its long-term goal of 10 percent annual profit growth. Appliances provided 4.1 percent of sales last year and GE no longer breaks out the unit's results.

``This isn't a piece of business at this point that has got much more incremental opportunity for GE,'' said Nicholas Heymann, an analyst at Sterne, Agee & Leach Inc. in New York, who has a ``hold'' rating on the stock. While GE has successfully cut costs and invested in higher-price models, ``at this point even the premium end of the business is limited.''

Welch divested the small appliance business, which included fans and toasters, in 1984.

Housing Slump

The U.S. is facing the deepest housing slump since the Great Depression, with foreclosures filings climbing 65 percent in April amid the subprime mortgage crisis. Home prices fell the most in 29 years during the first quarter, making it tougher for homeowners to refinance loans or borrow more money to buy goods such as kitchen appliances or cars.

GE Appliances, based in Louisville, Kentucky, provided about $7.2 billion of the parent company's $172.7 billion in sales last year. The unit had about 13,000 of GE's 327,000 employees as of the end of 2007.

Gary Sheffer, a spokesman for the GE, declined to comment.

GE rose as high as $32.70 at 5:08 p.m. in New York, after closing at $32.51 in regular New York Stock Exchange composite trading.

(Editor: Jia Fu)