Kodak bankruptcy? YES - Chapter 11

[cjolley]

How is 3M doing lately?
Do they have any cash?
They would make a good match with Kodak intellectually.

[UtwigMU]

Just saw some 3M sponsored conference for dentists at some castle I was visiting couple of weeks ago.

[Elie]

3M are pretty versatile, so I don't think it's an issue for them.

[Jammrock]

Kodak has tried very hard to be versitile. They saw the end of film cameras a long time ago. They just haven't been very successful at adjusting. They hold a great number of digital camera patents and have tried home and professional printing, plus various online services similar to Snapfish and the like.

[Dr Mordrid]

Just rebranding the digital products of others is hardly the way to innovate.

A major dumb move on their part was selling their Health Group to Onex, a Canadian investment & holding company, in 2007. Today as Carestream it's a $2.5B independent division, and with it went over 1,000 of Kodak's patents in digital & conventional radiology, imaging and IT.

S-T-U-P-I-D

[Umfriend]

He, if the price they got was more than what they could (in present value terms) wring out of that subsidiary, it was a solid decision.

[paulw]

It will be a sad day if such a well known brand as Kodak goes the way of such other companies as RCA, Philco etc. I still remember my time in Boston looking across the Charles River at the huge big Kodak building. They sure made nice film and print paper. My wife has a foto album from the 1960s and 70s . Many of the prints have gone pink but those printed on Kodak paper are as good as the day they were made..

[Technoid]

Well they did miss the window of opportunity to make sure there was laws against digital fotografy

[UtwigMU]

Film has gotten much better than it was in 2003ish.

You can buy a roll for 4 euros, then it costs 6 euros here to have it developed and get CD with scans delivered the next day.

For a few 100 EUR you can buy professional grade film camera and your lens are still compatible with modern DSLRs.

[Dr Mordrid]

Sounds like they're selling ~1,100 of their digital photo patents. As the article reports that isn't a solution, just a delaying tactic.

Link....

[Dr Mordrid]

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/01/19/us-kodak-idUSTRE80I08G20120119?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews&rpc=71

Kodak files for bankruptcy, secures $950 million lifeline

(Reuters) - Eastman Kodak Co, which invented the hand-held camera and helped bring the world the first pictures from the moon, has filed for bankruptcy protection, capping a prolonged plunge for one of America's best-known companies.

The more than 130-year-old photographic film pioneer, which had tried to restructure to become a seller of consumer products like cameras, said it had also obtained a $950 million, 18-month credit facility from Citigroup to keep it going.

The loan and bankruptcy protection from U.S. trade creditors may give Kodak the time it needs to find buyers for some of its 1,100 digital patents, the key to its remaining value, and to reshape its business while continuing to pay its 17,000 workers.

"The board of directors and the entire senior management team unanimously believe that this is a necessary step and the right thing to do for the future of Kodak," Chairman and Chief Executive Antonio Perez said in a statement.

"Now we must complete the transformation by further addressing our cost structure and effectively monetizing non-core intellectual-property assets. We look forward to working with our stakeholders to emerge a lean, world-class, digital imaging and materials science company," he added.

At end September, the group had total assets of $5.1 billion and liabilities of $6.75 billion.

Kodak said it and its U.S. subsidiaries had filed for Chapter 11 business reorganization in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York. Non-U.S. subsidiaries were not covered by the filing and would continue to honor all obligations to their suppliers, it added.
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