You know, I think it becomes psychological almost either they don't want somebody to choose

somebody as their successor who will outperform them and show them up.

It certainly was the case.

It seemed like that was the case with Bob Eiger.

And I think on some subliminal basis, it might have been the case with Jack Welch as well.

I'm Chris Hill and that's William Cohen, a founding partner of the Digital News Company

Puck, and author of the recently released book Power Failure, The Rise and Fall of an

American Icon.

Ricky Mulvey caught up with Cohen to talk about the origins of General Electric and what

caused the fall of one of America's most powerful companies.

Key differences between former CEOs Jack Welch and Jeff Emelt and why Cohen believes

a merger between Warner Brothers Discovery and Comcast is inevitable.

So General Electric is this myth making machine.

That was one of the key things that picked up from your book.

It was born on a myth of Thomas Edison's involvement and possibly it may be dying even on myths

such as John Flannery's Alster.

When you were researching General Electric and doing these interviews, I know you worked

there for a couple of years, was there any ideas that you held to be true that turned

out to be myth that surprised you in the process?

No, absolutely.

Right from the outset, in fact, it was always sort of drummed into not only employees' heads,

but of course everybody's in America's head that Thomas Edison was one of the founders

...