Eastman Kodak (EK)

Re: Eastman Kodak (EK)

Postby iam802 » Mon Jan 16, 2012 10:36 am

Why Fujifilm survives while Kodak is dying..

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The last Kodak moment?
Kodak is at death’s door; Fujifilm, its old rival, is thriving. Why?

http://www.economist.com/node/21542796
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Re: Eastman Kodak (EK)

Postby iam802 » Thu Jan 19, 2012 2:15 pm

Bankruptcy officially filed.
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Re: Eastman Kodak (EK)

Postby kennynah » Thu Jan 19, 2012 8:27 pm

finally...too bad, another one bites the dust
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Re: Eastman Kodak (EK)

Postby iam802 » Fri Feb 10, 2012 3:23 pm

Getting out of the camera business. This is the right move.

It seems like they still want to stay in the 'printer or printing business'.

Not too sure how big this market is and who are the competitors.


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Kodak to shutter camera business

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/02/ ... f=linkedin

* To exit camera, camcorders, digital frames

* Sees significant layoffs in 400-employee base

* Several parties interested in brand license

* Too late to end Hollywood Theater sponsor deal before Oscars

By Sinead Carew

Feb 9 (Reuters) - Eastman Kodak Co, the inventor of the digital camera, plans to get out of that business in the first half of the year as the bankrupt company looks to cut costs.

The decision to stop selling digital cameras along with pocket video cameras and digital picture frames marks the end of an era for Kodak, which also invented the handheld camera.

Kodak, which filed for bankruptcy protection last month, said on Thursday that getting out of cameras would result in "significant" job losses. Most of the 400 people in that business are based in Rochester, New York, and work in research and development and marketing.

The news comes as Kodak meets obstacles in another cost cutting move tied to its illustrious past. The company will be unable to end its 20-year sponsorship of the Hollywood Theater that hosts the Academy Awards before this year's Oscars.

Along with its reputation for making easy-to-use cameras for consumers, Kodak is also famous for its camera and photographic film contributions in movies.

Now, instead of designing its own cameras, Kodak will try to license its brand to other camera makers, several of which have already expressed "significant interest," said spokesman Christopher Veronda.

Kodak, which as recently as 2006 was one of the top three digital camera makers in the world, will stick with its desktop printer business, on which it has focused more recently.

"The printer initiative took over (in the last decade), and they took their eye off the ball in the camera and camcorder space," said IDC analyst Christopher Chute.

However, even in printers, Kodak is far from the top of the pile. It still lags in sixth place in the U.S. market despite being the only brand to grow in the double-digit percentage range in the last two years, according to NPD Group research. The U.S. printer market is led by HP, Epson and Canon.

Kodak, which opened for business in 1880, also invented digital cameras with Wi-Fi connections and touch-screens as well as docking stations that made it easy to transfer photos to computers, according to IDC's Chute.

These were among the products that gave Kodak a 10 percent market share in 2006, behind Canon and Sony Corp . By 2010 it had dropped to seventh place behind rivals like Nikon and Samsung Electronics Co, according to IDC.

But as the quality of digital cameras in cellphones improved, stand-alone cameras' relevance became somewhat limited to the higher-end market, where Kodak did not compete in recent years.

The company will take a charge of about $30 million to leave the business. It expects the exit to generate more than $100 million in annual operating savings.

The charge does not include additional costs that Kodak expects to incur for actions such as ending manufacturing contracts with overseas companies that make its products, Veronda said.

Kodak -- which once employed more than 60,000 people -- has not disclosed its employee numbers since the end of 2010, when it announced that it had a work force of 18,800. Today's employee base is smaller than that, according to Veronda, who said the company would update the number soon.

FROM HOLLYWOOD TO INKJETS

Kodak came under pressure from investors because margins are higher for products such as photography film and printer ink cartridges, which consumers buy far more frequently than cameras.

"As a business entity, their focus was always on consumable businesses, and rethinking how you sell (camera) hardware that only sells every few years is a very different kind of business," NPD analyst Stephen Baker said.

"Getting out of a market that's declining rapidly ... is probably a good idea," said Baker who estimated that U.S. camera sales had fallen about 20 percent in 2011 from 2010.

Before the digital age, Kodak cameras included the Brownie -- launched in 1900 with a $1 price tag -- and the Instamatic, which was launched in 1963.

A Kodak camera was used on the Apollo 11 mission in 1969, according to the company. And NASA said that a Kodak camera was used by the astronauts to film lunar soil from only inches away.

Kodak film has been used on 80 movies that have won Best Picture Oscars, according to the company.

In a stark move away from its more glamorous past however, Kodak recently had to ask for permission to end its 20-year Hollywood Theater sponsorship, worth $72 million. However, it was told in a filing late Wednesday that it could not get out of the deal ahead of the Feb 26. Oscars ceremony.

"The invitations and advertisements for the 2012 Academy Awards show are out. They cannot be recalled," CIM Group, the owner of the theater said in a court filing.

Kodak said on Thursday that the move out of cameras was the "logical extension" of its recent plan to improve margins in the camera business by narrowing its product portfolio, geographies and retail outlets.

The company, which depends on digital technology for three-quarters of its revenue, plans to continue to offer online and retail photo printing as well as desktop printers.

Remaining consumer services will also include retail-based photo kiosks and dry lab systems. Kodak said it has more than 100,000 kiosks and order stations for dry lab systems around the world.

Besides its consumer businesses segment, Kodak has a commercial business that includes enterprise services, graphics, entertainment and commercial films units.

The company promised to honor all related product warranties, and provide technical support and service for its cameras, pocket video cameras and digital picture frames.

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Re: Eastman Kodak (EK)

Postby iam802 » Wed Feb 15, 2012 9:23 pm

Apple Asks to Sue Bankrupt Kodak on Patents

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-1 ... ement.html
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Re: Eastman Kodak (EK)

Postby iam802 » Fri Mar 02, 2012 10:58 pm

Online Photo Service is sold to Shutterfly (SFLY)
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Re: Eastman Kodak (EK)

Postby iam802 » Mon May 14, 2012 8:23 pm

Kodak has a nuclear reactor??

How did they get it? Are they working on some govt. project?

--
Kodak Had a Secret Nuclear Reactor Loaded With Weapons-Grade Uranium Hidden In a Basement

http://gizmodo.com/5909961/
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Re: Eastman Kodak (EK)

Postby iam802 » Mon Jun 11, 2012 8:50 pm

Your patents is only worth as much as the last transactions.

Kodak can't find buyers for their patents.

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Kodak's Patent Allure Fades

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142 ... Collection
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Re: Eastman Kodak (EK)

Postby iam802 » Thu Aug 22, 2013 5:02 pm

Out of bankruptcy

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Kodak Reorganization Approval Affirms Move From Cameras

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/print/201 ... -york.html

Eastman Kodak Co. (EKDKQ), which dominated the photography industry before being hobbled by digital competition, won court approval of a plan to exit bankruptcy as a commercial printing company that sells nothing to consumers.

The plan, which cuts about $4.1 billion of debt, was approved yesterday by U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Allan Gropper in Manhattan. It affirms Kodak’s move away from cameras, film sales and consumer photo developing, which made it a household name, to focus on printing technology for corporate customers.

Kodak “is in many ways a new operation” after shedding its best-known businesses, Gropper said. “This is on a day when many are losing retirement benefits, when many are finding that their recovery as a creditor is just a minute fraction” of what they expected.

Secured claims will be paid in full under the plan, while shareholders will receive nothing. Unsecured creditors with estimated claims of as much as $2.2 billion will be paid 4 cents to 5 cents on the dollar. In court papers, Kodak called the plan a “comprehensive compromise” between the company and its creditors.

Gropper rejected claims from some shareholder groups that Kodak and its bankruptcy experts were hiding value. In court yesterday, he said that even if Kodak were worth far more than it claimed, that value would go to unsecured creditors and shareholders still wouldn’t get anything.

47,000 Jobs

Kodak, based in Rochester, New York, filed a Chapter 11 petition in January 2012 after spending $3.4 billion on earlier attempts to turn the company around. By then, Kodak had already shed 47,000 employees since 2003, closed 13 factories that made film, paper and chemicals, and shuttered 130 photo laboratories.

The company entered court protection with about 17,000 employees and will exit the case with about 8,500, after previously agreed unit sales and spinoffs.

The photographic and consumer print products associated with Kodak’s brand for generations were sold during the bankruptcy or spun off to settle pension claims. Its commercial printing businesses will continue making presses and technology to print documents, publications and product packaging.

The company will soon emerge “as a technology leader serving large and growing commercial imaging markets -- such as commercial printing, packaging, functional printing and professional services -- with a leaner structure and a stronger balance sheet,” Antonio M. Perez, Kodak’s chairman and chief executive officer, said in a statement.

‘A Leader’

While the new Kodak won’t be the company of “popular imagination,” it will again “be a leader in its chosen field,” its lawyer, Andrew Dietderich, said in court yesterday.

The plan hinges on Kodak selling $406 million of new stock. The rights offering for 85 percent of the company’s equity will be backstopped by a creditor group that includes GSO Capital Partners and BlueMountain Capital Management.

Creditors holding more than half of the company’s unsecured bonds agreed to invest new money in Kodak to boost their equity ownership through the rights offering, David Kurtz, the head of restructuring for Lazard Freres & Co., said in an interview.

“When you go back to the beginning of the case, there was a lot of uncertainty and skepticism and negative speculation about whether Kodak would ever see a going-concern Chapter 11 confirmation,” Kurtz said. “And here we are with the overwhelming support of our creditors.”

Touch Screens

Under the reorganization plan, Kodak will also focus on a new technology -- touch-screen sensor components for smartphones and computer tablets -- and continue producing film for the movie industry.

Kodak plans to rely on $895 million in loans to finance the bankruptcy exit, according to court papers. The reorganized company will have an estimated enterprise value in the range of $785 million to $1.38 billion, Kurtz said in an Aug. 2 filing.

Kodak raised cash for the reorganization by selling businesses including camera film, photo kiosks, an online picture-sharing service and commercial document scanners, and auctioning its digital-imaging patents. The patents related to the capture, manipulation and sharing of digital images, while the kiosks include those used by consumers and by theme parks to get pictures of passengers on rides.

Business Spinoffs

Kodak in April spun off its personalized- and document-imaging businesses for $650 million to its U.K. pension plan in a deal that settled $2.8 billion in claims against the company. It also reached a deal to resolve environmental liabilities in New York by establishing a trust and contributing $49 million.

The company, which sold the first consumer camera 125 years ago, was founded by George Eastman, who developed a method for dry-plate photography before introducing the Kodak camera in 1888, according to the company’s website.

It went on to invent film, enabling Thomas Edison to develop the motion picture camera, as well as Brownie cameras selling for $1 and Kodachrome film. It also invented the digital camera -- a technology it failed commercialize.

Kodak’s revenue at the time of the bankruptcy filing had fallen by half since 2005 to $7.2 billion in 2011. The company’s losses since 2008 had exceeded $1.76 billion.

“Kodak is one of the best-known names of American business,” Gropper said yesterday. “Its decline in bankruptcy is a tragedy of American economic life. I’ve reviewed dozens of letters from Kodak shareholders asking how the company in which they invested fell so far.”

The bankruptcy case is In re Eastman Kodak Co., 12-bk-10202, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).

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