With deals like its rescue of GPA Ltd, General Electric Co Inc’s GE Capital Corp is fast becoming the leaser of last resort to the world, and persistent gossip in leasing parlours has IBM Corp selling a substantial part of IBM Credit Corp’s lease portfolio – and it would have to be the big ticket items – to GE Capital; any such deal would be difficult to negotiate, because GE wouldn’t be too happy at the idea of IBM Credit going out and writing new leases on equipment that would simply compete with the portfolio it had just bought when the time came to remarket the used machines; it is pretty clear that IBM Credit would have to take a big hit on any sale, and it is possible that IBM would end up selling the whole of IBM Credit to GE Capital, or putting it into a joint venture similar to the one with Eastman Kodak Co on desktop maintenance; at all events, if there is any truth in the gossip, it underlines how desperate IBM now is for substantial extra cash.