Kodak files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy

by Alistair Lowe on 19 January 2012, 09:50

Tags: Kodak

The belief that camera and print firm, Kodak, would file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy has been lingering for a while now, however, as of January 19th, the firm officially announced that filing has taken place.

Kodak's hope is that it can use this life-line to restructure itself and "emerge a lean, world-class digital imaging and materials science company," stated chairman and CEO, Antonio Perez. Prior to filing for bankruptcy, the firm also launched several law suits against the likes of Apple, Samsung and HTC, in an attempt to monetize non-core IP assets and looks likely to continue with these legal cases throughout the restructuring.

Kodak has been granted £615 million of debtor-in-possession financing, providing the firm with the necessary but strictly controlled liquidity it requires to make its dreams of revival, with a target of 2013, come true. You can find more details of Kodak's plans and continued consumer support on the specially created website, kodaktransforms.com.

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The nostalgic part of me hopes that Kodak makes it successfully through their restructuring - my first camera was a little Kodak load-point-and-shoot and my first digital camera was a 2Mpix EasyShare, (and I've still got the latter).

On the other hand, if their “transformation” results in yet another patent troll, then I hope the company disappears with rapidity.

I know there has been various bits of news floating around about this for a while but I am still quite shocked as they are such an iconic brand.

I would have thought they had quite a portfolio of patents from over the years though.

It's worth remembering that a prime function of Chapter 11 is to avoid liquidation. A major feature is that it protects the company from the more predatory actions of one or some creditors, putting the emphasis on protecting all creditors and, if at all possible, getting the company through the situation it's in and surviving, albeit often “restructured”, as mentioned in the feature.

It's easy to hear the work “bankruptcy” and assume the company is toes-up, and while that may yet be the result, a fair proportion of C.11 cases end up with a reformed, leaner and perhaps smaller, but viable, outcome.

As shaithis said, and Crossy intimated without quite saying it, they're an iconic brand. I hope they get through this.

One of the ironies is that the first couple of digital cameras I ever used were Kodak-branded. And that's in the days when digital cameras were a novelty, because few people had ever seen one. I took them to a relative's wedding in the USA, and every time I put one down, I'd find it vanished and was being played with by someone on an adjoining table, because they'd never seen a camera where you could take a picture, and immediately view it on a screen on the back. :eek:

When you think about it, it's a bit shocking that something so utterly revolutionary not that long ago is so commonplace now that it's getting harder and harder to buy a mobile phone that doesn't have such a capability built-in, almost as an afterthought.

And even my mother-in-law has just gone digital. If any of you knew her, you know just how much that marks the end-game death-knell for film as anything other than a speciality for enthusiasts, or very specific special purposes, and that seems to be a large factor in Kodak's problems, despite them being involved on the leading edge of digital. One wonders quite how they managed that?

Those cameras, by the way, were a DC-20 and DC-25, IIRC.

Shelley's Ozymandias leaps to mind.
My first camera was a Kodak that took the 110 cartridges. I'd love to see them survive and make a go of it. It would be the biggest turnaround from obsolescence since sliderules.

One of the old guard brands

Despite that I can't think of anything good they have produced in the last ten years…

Just had a think, and I am still using a kodak W820 wifi frame (shows pictures from my flickr account )

Kodak files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy

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