With the downturn hurting the earnings at its finance unit and stifling demand for its wide-ranging industrial goods, General Electric Co (GE) Friday reported a 49 percent fall in its second-quarter profit - which plunged to $2.6 billion, or 24 cents per share, from the year-before figures of $5.1 billion, or 51 cents per share.

The revenue of the company plunged 17 percent to $39.1 billion - falling much short of the analysts' expectations of $42.16 billion revenue. Meanwhile, quarterly sales dropped across all of GE's widespread businesses - ranging from health care to broadcasting - thereby suggesting that the demand for goods and services has been hit hard by the ongoing recession.

The second-quarter figures clearly reveal that the Fairfield, Connecticut-based GE is persistently struggling with its big finance business - GE Capital; declining orders for industrial equipment; and diminishing advertising expenditure at its NBC television network and local stations. Nonetheless, analysts opine that the company is working hard towards slashing costs and trimming the size and risks of its finance unit.

Though GE's CEO Jeff Immelt has said that GE Capital "remains on track to be profitable for the full year," the company - which has lost its Triple-A credit rating - has scaled down its somewhat optimistic outlook for its industrial businesses, hoping most of its divisions to break even, rather than show a profit this year.