Kodak in Free Fall: Stock Plunges 60%

[hyphenate]

Source: Fox Business

Struggling Eastman Kodak (EK: 0.77, -0.92, -54.41%) has reportedly hired restructuring law firm Jones Day and is mulling a potential bankruptcy, sending the once-iconic imaging company’s stock plummeting more than 60% Friday afternoon.

According to The Wall Street Journal, Rochester, N.Y.-based Kodak has tapped law firm Jones Day for restructuring advice amid increasing concerns about its ability to survive. Kodak, which is 131 years old and employs almost 19,000 workers, is said to be considering a bankruptcy filing, Bloomberg news reported.

The reports fueled an enormous plunge in Kodak’s shares and triggered several circuit breakers that are aimed at keeping order in the marketplace.

Kodak’s stock, which was worth $20 three years ago, hit 60-year lows this week. After tumbling to 54 cents at one point, they were recently down 57.99% to 71 cents.



Read more: http://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/2011/09/30/kodak-in-free-fall-stock-plunges-60/#ixzz1ZSyzx5EU

Read more: http://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/2011/09/30/kodak-in-free-fall-stock-plunges-60/

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No comments needed. A company like Kodak on the brink of total dissolution is statement enough.

[msongs]

1. the film company cannot survive the death of film cameras. nt

[MADem]

2. Adapt, or die.

No one uses film anymore. I kind of like the "look" of it, but it does fade over time.

Progress!! Pity they didn't do a better job of staying ahead of the curve, with all those jobs on the line.

[Taverner]

17. Yep. Pretty much.

They made some cool products a while ago, but if they can't adapt to the anarchy of capitalism, they become rat food

[wordpix]

23. yeah, I bought a little of this stock at $30, bad move. Fortunately, not enough to break me but

I thought Kodak would move quickly into the digital age since it seemed obvious film was dying. Boy was I wrong

[sinkingfeeling]

3. Kodak still makes printers, copiers, and digital cameras.

[safeinOhio]

8. their customer service for their printer

sucks big time.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

25. So does HP.

Hands down, the best service I have experienced has been from Brother. Even better, their equipment runs so well, that the few times I had to call were few and far between.

[truthisfreedom]

4. I believe Kodak holds quite a number of important patents for digital photography.

They did get in early with some development in digital. They did not, however, get into the pro camera business. If they'd done something like develop and manufacture digital backs for conventional cameras early on, they might have gotten out ahead of the pack. I'm not really sure what innovations would have helped them, really... their name is so associated with film and prints that it's hard to know how they could have diversified and survived.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

5. Mama, don't take my Kodachrome away

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXZTBu_3ioI

[RushIsRot]

6. When I spoke to them about a 100 ft roll of flawed film, they were

arrogant jerks and I personally will not miss them.

Bet they're not so arrogant these days.

[frazzled]

7. Very sad in a way: an iconic American brand that defined photography and motion pictures

for generations.

[xchrom]

9. Recommend

[mahatmakanejeeves]

10. Kodak plummets 54% on bankruptcy rumors

Source: CNN

By Julianne Pepitone @CNNMoneyTech September 30, 2011: 4:07 PM ET

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Shares of Eastman Kodak dropped almost 60% Friday, with trading halted several times amid rumors that the camera maker has hired a law firm for advice on a major restructuring or bankruptcy filing.

The Wall Street Journal said Friday that Kodak had hired law firm Jones Day for restructuring. Bloomberg said the company hasn't officially hired a firm yet, but that bankruptcy is among the options being considered.
....

Kodak: Death of an American icon?
IPAM said in its letter to Kodak's board that the company's "long-term performance is simply unacceptable, and as such it has not earned the right to remain an independent company." It urged Kodak to find a buyer that "has resources to commercialize the company's intellectual property more efficiently."

Kodak has been increasingly relying on licensing for revenue. In July, The company also announced it's exploring the sale of more than 1,100 patents tied to digital imaging. Analysts say that deal could generate as much as $3 billion.


Read more: http://money.cnn.com/2011/09/30/technology/kodak_bankruptcy_rumors/#0_undefined,0_

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Wow. Years ago, who would have guessed this?

I thought about buying some earlier this year, but I never got around to it. Looks like I dodged that bullet.

For once.

[ChandlerJr]

11. Well that makes 4 American Icons I've worked for in the past

that have or are disappearing.

Control Data
Univac
Sears, Roebuck and Co.
and now Kodak.

It's too bad I'm semi-retired and self employed, I might be able to destroy a few more if given time.

[alcibiades_mystery]

19. Cool

You worked for Univac!

:thumbsup:

[Brother Buzz]

28. Please, please, please, go land a job at Bank of America

[xxqqqzme]

26. The sale of patents

is the end. If those are sold, they might as well turn off the lights and lock the doors

[Schema Thing]

12. The level of idiocy it took for Kodak not to jump into digital cinematography

with everything they had, is stunning.


They deserve to whither away further into nothingness.

[truthisfreedom]

13. How? There's no digital film. They were awarded lots of digital photography patents.

They're not well known for pro camera gear. Their consumer cameras are fine but there's way too much competition in that scene. How could they compete with Canon or Nikon with the Kodak brand name? It's associated with consumer stuff only, going way back to Brownies. Look what happened to their attempt at pro gear:

http://www.kodak.com/global/en/professional/products/cameras/camerasIndex.jhtml

[Schema Thing]

14. Huh? They wouldn't have been competing with Canon or Nikon.

They would have been competing with Sony or Fuji. Or really, just themselves, as the "video" companies took a ridiculously long time to seriously attempt digital cinematography as well. The market was as wide open as a market gets.

At the time, Kodak *owned* the word "cinematography".


And really, all any CCD or CMOS chip is, is "digital film".

[truthisfreedom]

16. Not sure it could have been done. Sony's a monster with electronics.

So is Fuji. Those companies were situated perfectly to capture the lion's share of the consumer market. Kodak would have been playing catch-up forever. What I meant with "there's no digital film" is that there's no consumables (other than SD cards, which usually last a long time).

[Schema Thing]

18. Red wasn't playing catch up with Sony or Fuji.

It was pure idiocy on Sony and Fuji's part not to jump into digital cinematography as well. Same goes for Canon and Nikon.


What Red and Phantom do, and what Canon, Sony and most everyone else are now doing, Kodak, Sony, Canon or any of the other big players were MUCH better *positioned* to do years ago. I'm not complaining (except that it's taken far longer than it should have), just commenting. Personally I'm brand agnostic.

[alcibiades_mystery]

20. Buggy whip company struggles with newfangled "horseless carriages"

Ooops!

[Schema Thing]

21. lol, that's about right. But....

....man, Kodak of all companies had the science and engineering. They even made a good start of it, very early on, with Pro DSLRs.

[sarcasmo]

15. Surprised the bankruptcy hasn't come sooner.

[NikRik]

22. At this point just hang on !

Kodak is a well known brand and people seem to gravatate to brand name goods.However with the state of ouer economy people are not spending as much and if they are going to buy ,they look at price and even a 2 dollare savingswill push them to a unknown manufactuer brand.Plus it seems alot of the new brands that appear out of nowhere have a pretty good track record . For instance when Hydia first came out it made terrible cars tin foil with a sewing machine for a engine . However something happen that made that company turn itself around and since around 2002 it started making very good quality cars and SUV's! I knowthis cause I bought my wife a 2002 Hydia SantaFe SUV for 20K the competition was about 6-8K more. She still has the SantaFe have never had a problem with it at 169,000 miles. Feels like a solid built auto with a good engine a V6! i even see this now in the Kia brand of auto's they revamp these companies open assembly plants here in US. Thiscant be bad for anyone. Please correct me if Iam wrong.

I apoligize for the long winded rant and boy did I go off subject :-)

[wordpix]

24. "a well known brand"---I was discussing Kodak with a 35 y.o. & she didn't recognize the name

until I explained it to her. Those in their 30's and younger have probably never used film and even those in their 40's, if they got into digital in its early years, probably didn't use Kodak much through their adulthood.

[BiggJawn]

27. Maybe they were premature in killing off Kodachrome?

I'm sure that ill-thought-out "Advanced Photo System" experiment didn't do them any good, either.

I miss Plus-X and Panatomic-X, too.

[MorningGlow]

29. They were dumbasses

They scoffed at digital for too long and never recovered. It's been downhill ever since.

Such a shame--a sad end for the company whose founder implemented profit sharing and smart business practices that made the entire city of Rochester profitable for a hundred years. Should have lasted longer.

[FarCenter]

30. In the early '90s they attempted to bring out their own proprietary digital photo formats

But the International Standards Organization came out with JPEG, and the camera industry adopted that and Kodak couldn't slow them down or charge them royalties. There were too many digital picture compression techniques that had been invented and used for such things as satellite surveillance.

By that time Kodak was also sort of out of the camera business -- the Japanese owned cameras by that time.

So Kodak was faced with rebuilding a camera busines, possibly a digital media business, and killing off their film business.

Note that Fuji and Sony both tried to push their own proprietary flash memory cards, while the rest of the industry went with the non-proprietary CF and SD cards.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

31. I had one of the Kodak disc players.

I found it left out for the trash. It was absolutely brand new, still in the box, with the remote and all the instructions. It was also completely useless, as the only format it would read was the Kodak format. I ended up taking it down to the thrift store and donating it, still in mint condition.

[hunter]

32. We'll all be sad when Lucky Film buys Kodak's high tech production lines...

And maybe the Kodak name too.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China_Lucky_Film