I have attached an Excel file that contains GE's consolidated balance sheets for fiscal years ending Dec 2017 and 2016. I highlighted a row that says "Goodwill". You will note that this long-term asset is about 20% of total assets. If you go to the latest 10-K of GE from SEC.GOV, and read Note 8 under "Notes to Financial Statements" you can read the details. As a general rule always look at the notes to financial statements, there are many interesting details that are hidden in those notes.

Your question to discuss is "what is goodwill? How is it booked? Should we have an item like that in the balance sheet? If you do not think goodwill belongs in the financial statements, how do you think we should proceed?

GE Balance Sheet-1 a- Search Sheet Home Insert Page Layout Formulas Review View tShare A Connections A Show Detail From From From New Dabase Retresh FileMaker HTML TextQery Advanced Text to Remove Data Consolidate What- Group Ungroup Subtotal Columns Duplicates Validation STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL POSITION- USD (S) $ in Millions Combined for GE and GE Capital Dec. 31, 2017 Dec. 31, 2016 3 Assets 4 Cash and equivalents 5 Investment securities (Note 3) 6 Current receivables (Note 4) 7 Inventories (Note 5) 8 Financing receivables-net (Note 6) 9 Other GE Capital receivables 10 Property, plant and equipment-net (Note 7] 11 Receivable from GE Capital (debt assumptionb 12 Investment in GE Capital 13 Goodwill (Note 8) 43,299 $48,129 44,313 24,076 22,354 12,242 5,944 50,518 24,438 53,874 70,438 19.29% 16,436 25,162 27,176 1,833 1,745 14,815 22.22% 20,273 28,861 29,612 15 Other intangible assets-net (Note 8] 16 Contract assets (Note 9 17 All other assets 18 Deferred income taxes (Note 13) 19 Assets of businesses held for sale (Note 2) 20 Assets of discontinued operations (Note 2) 21 Total assets 22 Liabilities and equity 23 Short-term borrowings (Note 10) 24 Accounts payable, principally trade accounts 25 Progress collections and price adjustments accrued 26 Dividends payable 27 Other GE current liabilities 28 Non-recourse borrowings of consolidated securitization entities [Note 10) 29 Long-term borrowings (Note 10) 30 Investment contracts, insurance liabilities and insurance annuity benefits (Note 11) 31 Non-current compensation and benefits 32 All other liabilities 33 Liabilities of businesses held for sale (Note 2] 4,243 S,912 377,945 30,714 14,435 16,760 2,107 17,564 417 105,080 26,086 43,780 22,912 18,462 108,575 38,136 22,795 STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL POSITION + Select destination and press ENTER or choose Paste 130%