What was the total number of Six Sigma Black Belts employed by General
Electric ("GE") at the end of 1999?

The answer you are looking for is "nearly 4,000".  This information is
found at this site: http://www.pcd-innovations.com/infosite/contest99/ge/ge.htm.
 Below is a paragraph from the site.

In 1995, GE adopted a disciplined methodical program called Six Sigma,
a statistical term describing fewer than four defects per million
opportunities. GE's aggressive target is to be a Six Sigma company by
the year 2000. To meet this "stretch goal", GE has trained nearly
4,000 quality leaders, known as Black Belts and their leaders , known
as Master Black Belts, from the 11 major GE businesses. In turn, those
full-time quality leaders have trained and mentored more than 30,000
Green Belts (novices) who have learned how to integrate Six Sigma
projects and methods into their daily work.

I'm trying to do some analysis against our own company's Six Sigma
effort, so I was hoping for a more exact number.  If that's possible,
I'll take - otherwise, should be OK.