Kodak Moment: Bankrupt

Photographic film company Eastman Kodak have today announced they will be filing for bancruptcy. Despite an extended period of employee redundancies, legal cases against patent infringements (by Samsung, Apple et al), and new printer technology, it seems the digital age has beaten the analogue system. The company who created the handheld camera have been on a downward spiral for some time, but had hoped that their increasing portfolio of digital innovations would allow them to pull through and reshape the organisation.

Kodak CEO Antonio Perez is still counting on patents to pull Kodak through bankruptcy. “Chapter 11 gives us the best opportunities to maximize the value in two critical parts of our technology portfolio,” Perez writes:

our digital capture patents, which are essential for a wide range of mobile and other consumer electronic devices that capture digital images and have generated over $3 billion of licensing revenues since 2003; and our breakthrough printing and deposition technologies, which give Kodak a competitive advantage in our growing digital businesses.

More here.