Around half that comes from its two "pure" service arms, GE Capital, which alone provides about 40% of its profits, and NBC.
"Perhaps one of the service arms, or maybe two, if they can give them to me at a reasonable price," he said.
The small oil companies now investing in the North Sea are hungry for cost-cutting tools and tricks but do not have large research and service arms of their own, so they buy expertise.
Bank of America and Citigroup, two of the largest credit card issuers, have signed a deal to offer their customers American Express-branded cards, and HSBC and General Electric's financial service arms have reached agreements with Discover.
A few have expansive service arms like Andreessen Horowitz's recruiting program or GV's design assistance.
But without the computer and server businesses to feed it customers, profitability at HP's printing and service arms would suffer.
Were it not for their moneymaking financing and credit service arms, GM and Ford would not be profitable.
"Being able to draw on that sort of brand name and these big service arms that can help run events and do industry analysis – there are certainly days when aspects of that are appealing," he says.
Focusing on very early stage startups could allow Village Global to make an impact without raising an exceptionally huge fund, or offering expansive service arms like Andreessen Horowitz or GV (formerly Google Ventures) do in recruiting, design, and other areas.
The free, opt in/opt out service arms women with information that guides them to make healthy choices.
UMA management's statement to me says, "There are no ongoing financial relationships between the sellers and the ongoing business through service arms, real estate or like arrangements.
