Kodak has won court approval of a plan to exit bankruptcy. The company whose name was synonymous with cameras when I was a kid (we bought a “Kodak” whatever brand it happened to be) will not anymore make or sell cameras, film and consumer photo developing. Instead, it will focus on commercial markets: touch-screen sensor components for smartphones and computer tablets, film for the movie industry, commercial printing, packaging, functional printing and professional services.

Kodak filed for bankruptcy in January 2012; it shed off 47,000 employees since 2003, closed 13 factories that made film, paper and chemicals, and shuttered 130 photo laboratories.

Read the story at: Bloomberg.

Here’s a look back to 1973 when Paul Simon immortalized Kodachrome film (and the Nikon camera) with this tongue-in-cheek song. He sure seemed to be a prophet since unfortunately mama did take the Kodachrome away in 2009…

Kodachrome, they give us those nice bright colors
They give us the greens of summers
Makes you think all the world’s a sunny day, oh yeah
I got a Nikon camera, I love to take a photograph
So mama don’t take my Kodachrome away

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The Jan. 30, 2012 issue of DER SPIEGEL magazine has an interesting article titled “How Kodak Succumbed to the Digital Age.” As expected, it tells the story of how the company that gave us the KODAK film (“The most important moments of the 20th century were captured on Kodak film“) went “From Small to Huge to Nothing.” The article is now reprinted online on Spiegel and tells a fascinating story seen from the eyes of Robert Shanebrook who worked at Kodak for 35 years. The author has a unique perspective on the rise and fall of Kodak:

Indeed, the story of Kodak is not a simple parable of rise and fall. Instead, it is a complex tale with an ending that is more comforting than one would initially expect.

This misplaced optimism has to do with the bankruptcy of Kodak and its reinvention into a company that is all about… printers — in the hope that the billions of digital pictures will get printed on paper.

Ummm… I think not.

Read the article at: Spiegel.

Perhaps the most famous camera marketing quote ever published was “Just press the shutter and we will do the rest” or some variation to that effect. Well, it won’t be the case anymore since Kodak has decided to stop producing digital cameras, pocket video cameras and digital picture frames. They will lay off all workers involved in those departments and license the “Kodak” name to one or more third parties who are interested to sell digital cameras, etc. with the kodak brand on them. Kodak will continue to be active in some photographic markets, including desktop inkjet printers and retail-based photo kiosks. The image sensor business was sold a couple of months ago.

PRESS RELEASE

Kodak Focuses Consumer Business On More Profitable Growth Opportunities

Plans to phase out dedicated capture devices business

ROCHESTER, N.Y., February 09 — Eastman Kodak Company (the “Company”) (OTB: EKDKQ.PK) announced today that, as a result of its ongoing strategic review process and commitment to drive sustainable profitability through its most valuable business lines, it plans to phase out its dedicated capture devices business – comprising digital cameras, pocket video cameras and digital picture frames – in the first half of 2012. Kodak will instead expand its current brand licensing program, and seek licensees in these categories. Following this decision, Kodak’s Consumer Business will include online and retail-based photo printing, as well as desktop inkjet printing.

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Eastman Kodak Company and Its U.S. Subsidiaries Commence Voluntary Chapter 11 Business Reorganization

Flow of Goods and Services to Customers to Continue Globally in Ordinary Course; Non-U.S. Subsidiaries Are Not Included in U.S. Filing and Are Not Subject to Court Supervision; Company Secures $950 million in Debtor-in-Possession Financing in U.S.; Kodak’s Reorganization to Facilitate Emergence as Profitable and Sustainable Enterprise

ROCHESTER, N.Y., January 19 — Eastman Kodak Company (“Kodak” or the “Company”) announced today that it and its U.S. subsidiaries filed voluntary petitions for chapter 11 business reorganization in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York.

The business reorganization is intended to bolster liquidity in the U.S. and abroad, monetize non-strategic intellectual property, fairly resolve legacy liabilities, and enable the Company to focus on its most valuable business lines. The Company has made pioneering investments in digital and materials deposition technologies in recent years, generating approximately 75% of its revenue from digital businesses in 2011.

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There is no name more famous in film than Kodak. Nor in cameras… a decade or more ago. In fact, in some developing countries, the very name Kodak became synonymous with cameras, as in, “Don’t forget to bring your Kodak” — meaning don’t forget to bring your camera, whatever brand it may happened to be.

As Eastman Kodak Co. faces the threat of delisting from the New York Stock Exchange, its stock trading at less than $1.00, it is only a matter of time before someone buys its good name and slaps it onto generic digital cameras (which Kodak itself does today).

It is good to pause and ponder that things change. Some of us are still clinging to film, optical viewfinder, the traditional mirrored DSLR, brick-and-mortar businesses, … whatever it is you cut your teeth on, came to grips with, learned, became very good at… it will change and be left behind as new ways and technologies take its place.

Today’s kids grow up on digital, the iPod, iPhone, iPad, USB flash drive. What’s a cassette tape, CD player, VHS player, CRT screen, floppy disk? This year 2012, set yourself a new resolution to embrace change. It’s the only constant.

Related Link:

• Kodak faces bankruptcy.

The dismantling of Kodak continues unabated. Just announced is the sales of its image sensor business and it is also looking for interested buyers for many of its best patents. It is not certain whether Kodak will survive the next fiscal year.

PRESS RELEASE

Kodak Sells Image Sensor Business to Platinum Equity

ROCHESTER, N.Y., November 07 —

Eastman Kodak Company (NYSE:EK) announced today that it has completed the sale of its Image Sensor Solutions (ISS) business to Platinum Equity in a move that will sharpen Kodak’s operational focus and strengthen its financial position.

While the financial details were not disclosed, Kodak will have continuing access to the image sensor technology involved in this transaction for use in its own products. Kodak has previously communicated that it would sell assets that are not central to its transformation to a profitable, sustainable digital company. This sale is aligned with that strategy to generate cash to complete the transformation.

Included in the sale is a 263,000 square foot facility in Eastman Business Park in Rochester, N.Y., that houses manufacturing and research facilities.

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PRESS RELEASE

Imax licenses Kodak technology for digital screens

Oct 16 (Reuters) – Giant movie screen maker Imax Corp will license laser projection technology from struggling Eastman Kodak Co in a deal that will enable more Imax theaters to show digital films.

Imax has licensed from Kodak certain exclusive rights to more than 50 patents covering laser projection technology for digital cinema, the companies said in a statement released on Sunday.

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The Kodak story is fascinating and tragic at the same time. The name Kodak was once synonymous with cameras and photography but today it seems poised at the threshold of being irrelevant. We like to blame the shortsightedness of key executives for not embracing digital fully and encourage other camera manufacturers not to repeat the Kodak mistake.

However, Robert Plant in a Harvard Business Review paper, puts forward a different perspective on why executives at Kodak were unable to deliver on their first-mover advantage in digital technologies. He singles out Kodak IT’s CIO, Katherine Hudson, as the person who probably blindsided the company by outsourcing IT, considered a noncore value. The resulting layoffs of key personnel, loss of organizational memory, and loss of IT connectivity with the firm meant that the technology staff effectively lost its voice about emergent digital technologies and processes.

Is your company not being as competitive as you think it should be? Perhaps, argues Plant, you should “listen to the voices in the IT organization, value what they do, and think twice about what is core and noncore.” It’s a short and interesting read.

Read “A Kodak Moment to Reconsider the Value of IT.”

Eastman Kodak once enjoyed 80% market share for film. Then it faced stiff competition from Fujifilm. It was among the first in introducing a consumer digital camera but did not pursue its first-mover advantage. It has not made a profit since 2007 and revenues has dwindled for the last decade. In 2004, the company was removed from the Dow Jones Industrial Average after 74 years on the blue chip index. In 2010, it was removed from the S&P 500.

Even though it insists it won’t file bankruptcy, a share of Kodak now costs about $1.34. It has hired the law firm Jones Day – which is known as bankruptcy and restructuring experts.

For me, Kodak’s decline was visually represented by the current logo introduced in 2006. It was a simplistic and uninspiring logo and looked cheap.

For those who have never seen it, pictured above is the old logo that once proudly represented some of the best films used by photographers around the world.

Read the article at: Yahoo!

It will not come at a surprise to most photographers that a Kodak image sensor is being sent into space on spacecraft Juno bound for Jupiter. Kodak images sensors are used in many consumer digital cameras. The KODAK KAI-2020 Image Sensor in Juno is a 1600 x 1200 pixel array and will enable JunoCam to capture images of Jupiter’s cloud tops at up to 3 km per pixel, providing an unprecedented view of the planet.

Besides the Junocam, the Juno spacecraft is also carrying the following items:

• 3 [No, they are not Star Wars] figurines: the 1.5-inch likeness of Galileo Galilei, the Roman god Jupiter and his wife Juno.
• A plaque dedicated to the famous astronomer Galileo Galilei.

via About

PRESS RELEASE

KODAK Imaging Technology Used To Explore Jupiter

KODAK CCD Image Sensor To Help Provide Unprecedented Views of Jupiter As Part of Juno Mission

ROCHESTER, N.Y., Aug. 2 — When NASA’s Juno spacecraft is launched this week to begin its five-year voyage to the planet Jupiter, image sensor technology from Eastman Kodak Company (NYSE:EK) will be on board to help capture images of the gas giant as never before.

The KODAK KAI-2020 Image Sensor was selected by Malin Space Science Systems to serve as the “eye” of JunoCam, an instrument that will provide full color images of Jupiter as the spacecraft orbits the planet. The Juno spacecraft is designed to investigate Jupiter’s origins, interior structure, deep atmosphere and magnetosphere from an innovative, highly elliptical orbit that will come as close as 5,000 km (3,100 miles) to the planet’s cloud tops.

“Kodak has a rich history of participating in space exploration, and we are excited to see this legacy continue as part of the Juno mission,” said Chris McNiffe, General Manager of Kodak’s Image Sensor Solutions group. “The selection of KODAK Technology for use in JunoCam speaks directly to the dedication and efforts of the design and manufacturing teams that continue to make KODAK CCDs ideal for use in the demanding environment of space.”

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The Frankensteintax © AM Radio

Whether you thought the sales of Pentax to Ricoh made sense or not, just imagine what if it were Kodak (which we know do not make DSLRs anymore) who had bought Pentax?

Flickr user AM Radio created the “Frankensteintax,” a Pentax K10d DSLR set to manual mode paired with an antique (1917) Series III Kodak 127 camera. Apparently, the odd setup actually works with the Pentax taking care of shutter speed and ISO and the Kodak of the aperture in T mode.

View the images captured by the Frankensteintax at: Memory Radio.

source Dvice