Boeing Considers Foray into Smart Grid Market (BA,GE,IBM,CSCO)

Oct 13, 2009 (SmarTrend(R) News Watch via COMTEX) ----10/13/2009 - As Boeing (NYSE:BA) sees some of its key programs cut, new defense chief Dennis Muilenburg is proposing that the company use some of its defense technologies and resources to enter the $20 billion U.S. power grid market, according to a Bloomberg report. In an interview, Muilenburg said "We know that we have to reposition our business, and that repositioning is something we are very aggressively doing . . . One idea is to take some of our defense technology and use it to help solve problems in the energy sector.aEUR Boeing would compete with the likes of General Electric (NYSE:GE), IBM (NYSE:IBM) and Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) for $4.5 billion of U.S. stimulus spending aimed at upgrading the power grid. On August 26, the company submitted three proposals for stimulus grants to study the smart grid.