General Electric to move headquarters to Boston - report

General Electric Co is set to move its global headquarters to Boston from its current location of Fairfield, Connecticut, the Boston Globe reported on Wednesday, citing a source familiar with the situation.

According to the paper, a formal announcement is due on Thursday.

"We haven't made any announcements and do not have a comment at this time," GE spokeswoman Jennifer Erickson said.

Should the move to Boston come to fruition, GE's move is a blow to Connecticut which in December reduced corporate taxes in order to thwart criticism that the state is unfriendly to business.

State lawmakers in June had passed a $40 billion biannual budget that increased taxes by $1.2 billion over two years despite protests from some of the state's biggest corporations.

At the time, GE Chief Executive Officer Jeff Immelt said in an email to employees that he asked a team to examine the company's options to relocate the headquarters to a state with a "more pro-business environment."

GE has approximately 5,700 employees in Connecticut. A spokesman said approximately 800 people are employed at the Fairfield headquarters.

The company also considered Atlanta; Austin, Texas, and Nashville, Tennessee, as potential headquarters sites, part of a wide-ranging search that began last year, according to people familiar with the matter. (Reporting by Daniel Bases and Alwyn Scott in New York and Ankit Ajmera in Bangaluru; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe and Matthew Lewis)