Kodak Files for Bankruptcy Protection
- Thread starter Sion
- Start date
Agree with hanzohattori, its still a going business concern, operations still carry on. Protection Laws are a way to restructure and write offs etc.......unless beyond rescue without incoming cash flows to sustain daily operations....then its a pity, it will die off. Hope Kodak does not end up this way.....
I feel sad for Kodak. I think it is the end for Kodak. So much of my memory was captured with Kodak.
Kodak: 30 fascinating facts - Telegraph
Ironically, Kodak was the first company to build a working digital camera.
Traditional Auld Lang Syne - Spirit of the Glen - Journey - The Royal Scots Dragoon Guards - YouTube
Kodak: 30 fascinating facts - Telegraph
Ironically, Kodak was the first company to build a working digital camera.
Traditional Auld Lang Syne - Spirit of the Glen - Journey - The Royal Scots Dragoon Guards - YouTube
I personally don't feel sad for them... in any dog eat dog World, they refuse to keep up, improve and work with new tech like Digital Photography and kept doing what they have always been doing...films. When the learned, too late, how Digital Photography is the next big thing... too late for them to catch up with the other markets leaders.
A good lesson for those who think that they don't have to work hard anymore just because they are the best now... the ball is round. :think:
When digital cameras were first introduced, they were bulky, low megapixel, incapable of producing a good image and horrendously expensive. Film seemed king of the hill then. Film makers would have laughed at the digital challenge way back then. They never expected the rapid increase in digital capability coupled with dramatic drop in price of digital cameras & memory cards. Though they may be aware of Moore's law since 1965, none of them really believed it could hurt them. Until it was too late.
"The company pioneered research into digital photography beginning in the mid-1970s. But it was Asian manufacturers that stole a march in that market in the 1990s as Kodak failed to see the need to break from its old business lines."
US camera pioneer Kodak files for bankruptcy - Channel NewsAsia
"Kodak has been struggling to evolve in today's digital world. The shift from film upended the company's business model, causing sales to shrink almost in half from 2005 to 2010 and profits to dry up completely."
Eastman Kodak files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection - Jan. 19, 2012
"Kodak made all its money from selling film, then the digital camera came along and now no-one's buying film. It's not like they didn't see it coming. Kodak hesitated because they didn't want to eviscerate their business," said Rupert Goodwins, editor of technology website ZDNet.
BBC News - Eastman Kodak files for bankruptcy protection
Last edited:
The first digital camera was 0.01 megapixel. Actually even as recently a few years back, enthusiasts were still debating the merits of film vs digital. Some took longer to convert. Eventually most were converted.
When Kodak invented digital cameras, it is like the Chinese that invented gunpowder but failed to exploit it fully for conquests and continued to focus on trading in silk and tea.
Last edited:
And like the Chinese of old China... too late when Westerner with firearms, started attacking...
Rest in Peace Kodah... even when I felt you have yourself to blame only... :think:
Kodak Gets 2013 Deadline To Reorganize
January 23, 2012
By Ben Dobbin, AP Business Writer
ROCHESTER, New York (AP) — Eastman Kodak Co. has a little over a year to reshape its money-losing businesses and deliver a get-out-of-bankruptcy plan.
Girded by a $950 million financing deal with Citigroup Inc., the photography pioneer aims to keep operating normally during bankruptcy while it peddles a trove of digital-imaging patents.
After years of mammoth cost-cutting and turnaround efforts, Kodak ran short of cash and sought protection from its creditors Thursday. It is required under its bankruptcy financing terms to produce a reorganization plan by Feb. 15, 2013.
U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Allan Gropper in New York gave Kodak permission to borrow an initial $650 million from Citigroup.
He also set a June 30 deadline for Kodak to seek his approval of bidding procedures for the sale of 1,100 patents that analysts estimate could fetch at least $2 billion. No buyers have emerged since Kodak started shopping them around in July.
Through negotiations and lawsuits, Kodak has already collected $1.9 billion in patent licensing fees and royalties since 2008. Last week, it intensified efforts to defend its intellectual property by filing patent-infringement lawsuits against Apple Inc., HTC Corp., Samsung Electronics and Fujifilm Corp.
Kodak is also pursuing another high-stakes dispute before the U.S. International Trade Commission in Washington, D.C., against Apple and BlackBerry maker Research in Motion Ltd. over image-preview technology it patented in 2002.
Kodak has said it hopes to garner $1 billion from the two-year-old claim. But the commission, a U.S. arbiter for trade disputes, recently put off its decision until September.
Founded by George Eastman in 1880, Kodak turned photography into a mass commodity at the dawn of the 20th century and was known all over the world for its Brownie and Instamatic cameras and its yellow-and-red film boxes. It was brought down first by Japanese competition and then an inability to keep pace with the shift from film to digital technology.
"They're a company that knows more about imaging than anyone else in the world," said Robert Burley, a photography professor at Ryerson University in Toronto. "But I think they lost their ability in their corporate structure to turn those innovations into real-world applications and get them on the market fast.
"There were just too many fronts to deal with, too many battles all at the same time."
In its bankruptcy filing, Kodak said its nearly decade-long overhaul has been undermined since 2008 by a sluggish economy and high restructuring costs. Its payroll has plunged below 19,000 from 70,000 in 2002, and it hasn't had a profitable year since 2007.
"At the same time as we have created our digital business, we have also already effectively exited certain traditional operations, closing 13 manufacturing plants and 130 processing labs, and reducing our workforce by 47,000 since 2003," CEO Antonio Perez said.
"Now we must complete the transformation by further addressing our cost structure and effectively monetizing non-core (intellectual-property) assets," Perez said in a statement.
Kodak's stock edged up to 32 cents in over-the-counter trading Friday afternoon. The bankruptcy filing prompted the New York Stock Exchange to delist the securities.
January 23, 2012
By Ben Dobbin, AP Business Writer
ROCHESTER, New York (AP) — Eastman Kodak Co. has a little over a year to reshape its money-losing businesses and deliver a get-out-of-bankruptcy plan.
Girded by a $950 million financing deal with Citigroup Inc., the photography pioneer aims to keep operating normally during bankruptcy while it peddles a trove of digital-imaging patents.
After years of mammoth cost-cutting and turnaround efforts, Kodak ran short of cash and sought protection from its creditors Thursday. It is required under its bankruptcy financing terms to produce a reorganization plan by Feb. 15, 2013.
U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Allan Gropper in New York gave Kodak permission to borrow an initial $650 million from Citigroup.
He also set a June 30 deadline for Kodak to seek his approval of bidding procedures for the sale of 1,100 patents that analysts estimate could fetch at least $2 billion. No buyers have emerged since Kodak started shopping them around in July.
Through negotiations and lawsuits, Kodak has already collected $1.9 billion in patent licensing fees and royalties since 2008. Last week, it intensified efforts to defend its intellectual property by filing patent-infringement lawsuits against Apple Inc., HTC Corp., Samsung Electronics and Fujifilm Corp.
Kodak is also pursuing another high-stakes dispute before the U.S. International Trade Commission in Washington, D.C., against Apple and BlackBerry maker Research in Motion Ltd. over image-preview technology it patented in 2002.
Kodak has said it hopes to garner $1 billion from the two-year-old claim. But the commission, a U.S. arbiter for trade disputes, recently put off its decision until September.
Founded by George Eastman in 1880, Kodak turned photography into a mass commodity at the dawn of the 20th century and was known all over the world for its Brownie and Instamatic cameras and its yellow-and-red film boxes. It was brought down first by Japanese competition and then an inability to keep pace with the shift from film to digital technology.
"They're a company that knows more about imaging than anyone else in the world," said Robert Burley, a photography professor at Ryerson University in Toronto. "But I think they lost their ability in their corporate structure to turn those innovations into real-world applications and get them on the market fast.
"There were just too many fronts to deal with, too many battles all at the same time."
In its bankruptcy filing, Kodak said its nearly decade-long overhaul has been undermined since 2008 by a sluggish economy and high restructuring costs. Its payroll has plunged below 19,000 from 70,000 in 2002, and it hasn't had a profitable year since 2007.
"At the same time as we have created our digital business, we have also already effectively exited certain traditional operations, closing 13 manufacturing plants and 130 processing labs, and reducing our workforce by 47,000 since 2003," CEO Antonio Perez said.
"Now we must complete the transformation by further addressing our cost structure and effectively monetizing non-core (intellectual-property) assets," Perez said in a statement.
Kodak's stock edged up to 32 cents in over-the-counter trading Friday afternoon. The bankruptcy filing prompted the New York Stock Exchange to delist the securities.
Similar threads
