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What changes do you think Kodak will make to emerge from bankruptcy?

Well, Kodak declared Chapter 11 today and vows to rebound. What do you think they will do. What does this do for the competition?

http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2012/01/19/bankrupt-kodak-vows-to-rebound/

by aksman44
asked 4 months ago

6 Answers answer

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Their competition is smartphone makers, and they probably barely noticed. If they can restructure themselves into a quality lens maker and ditch the standalone camera market, they might have a chance. That said, I really have no idea what I'm talking about.

Just read the article. Printers? ...okaaaay.

rprebel
4 months ago

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I hate to say this but I don't see them "bouncing back". In the 80's and 90's they put way too many eggs in the "low end consumer camera" market. When that market quickly dried up, they didn't properly transfer this to the digital age, and their cameras were considered overpriced and undervalued.

It's sad but my guess is the company will go away, if not now, soon enough. Since the brand is such an American legend, it will probably not go away though, but be recycled by someone who buys up the assets, just like happened to Polaroid.

tsfisch
4 months ago

vote-for4vote-against

@rprebel: I hadn't read the article until I read your comment (I loathe reading the online nytimes), but had to go off and skim it just to see if there was something different than I knew about.

There was a time when Kodak OWNED the commercial printer market. I used to have a (mumble::expen$ive::mumble) in a computer lab, and the price of the ink alone would have funded a small company. I had the entire thing under lock and key, and it required special permission to print on it. The prints were beautiful, though.

This was long, long ago, in perhaps the early nineties (man, it's weird to realize how long ago that really is).

The name will remain. Someone will buy it for pennies on the dollar. Pity.

shrdlu
4 months ago

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Kodak just needs to be selective its opportunities. The consumer market is limited, particularly as consumers may shift their consumption of their own pictures / videos through tablets or other media vs. printing them out. There are still niche opportunities in the commercial, medical, and other specialized industries. Kodak also has a number of patents, so it needs to reset its strategy, whether better licensing arrangements, chasing down infringements, or selling them off. I wouldn't count them out yet.

mistamoose
4 months ago

vote-for5vote-against

The other thing Kodak did wrong in the film era was constantly try to keep 35mm film out of the consumer market by giving them other, inferior options. When I was very young in the early-mid 70's, it was 126 film. Then it was 110 film in the late 70's and early 80's. Then they came out with one of the most dreadful of all formats, the disc film with its tiny negatives. By the mid 80's, non-Kodak 35mm cameras that were very easy to use were taking over quickly. Kodak's answer? Come out with yet another new 'consumer' format, APS, which they tried to promote well into the digital age.

tsfisch
4 months ago

vote-for1vote-against

Kodak went the way a lot of companies do. The original creative Type A folk die or retire, and are replaced by minions, lawyers and secretaries.
Look at Apple- they kicked out Steve and the company was soon on the ropes. He comes back- they bitch about his attitude but he brings the company back. Look at IBM and Xerox, also. These two OWNed their niche, until the committees took over. By the time they came out with New! and Improved! old crap the world passed them by.
Kodak was known for good products, good service, good quality and good prices. Then the committees took over. The company got top heavy and passed the costs to the consumer. To keep profits high they lowered their standards. They even stopped making products and laid off their production workers to try to bolster the quarterly bottom line. Once again the end results are overpaid self entitled fuddy duddies, a bunch of brown nosing whiny minions, and not much else.
Their time has passed. Their 1% will get paid, tho.

gidgaf
3 months ago

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