The deal eliminates $2.8 billion in pension obligations for the bankrupt film company, bringing it one step closer to solvency, and its film products one step closer to obsolescence.
Kodak’s failure to adapt to the evolving marketplace led them to their current predicament. But fortunately for them, DIP financing offers an opportunity for them to reorganize and open their doors once again.
Is it possible for a company with legacy holdings and a history of owning a narrow sales channel to evolve into a thriving digital enterprise? Kodak, which filed for bankruptcy protection today, isn't alone in trying to navigate an analog to digital transition.
Struggling Kodak is made up of businesses being marginalized by digital developments: digital cameras, digital movie making, digital books, and magazines. Kodak needs to base its strategy on its brand, and suing over patents doesn’t do justice to its legacy. Instead, Kodak needs to think retro, and get small.
Photographer David Friedman makes gorgeous mini-documentaries about inventors (32 so far), and his latest is a must-see for anyone who wonders where world-changing technology comes from. Friedman interviewed Steven Sasson, inventor of the digital camera, in Kodak's Rochester, NY headquarters last October, and got a little "product walkthrough" of Sasson's first working camera -- which looks like a clunky '70s Polaroid crossed with a Speak-and-Spell.
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