It is part of American history and photography that could fall soon. Kodak, a venerable company founded in 1892, specialized in particular in films and cameras, said on Monday, August 11, that he has “doubts about his ability to continue his activities”, due to lack of liquidity.
As CNN recounts, the company warned during the presentation of its results, not having “committed funds or liquidity available” to honor its future debt obligations, of around $ 500 million. In the second quarter, he suffered a net loss of $ 26 million.
The company indicates that it will stop paying contributions to its pension plan to generate liquidity, without giving more details about its near future.
Poorly negotiated turns
This is not the first time that the name of Eastman Kodak Company is completed is on the edge of ABYSS. After several decades of uninterrupted growth, carried by the development of the consumer and professional photography market, and for its innovations that allow democratizing its use (“Press the button, we take care of the rest”), the company knows its first difficulties in 1986, while it has a market share of 85% in cameras in the United States.
The firm, based in Rochester, in the state of New York, must stop making and sell instant development devices, a booming segment, due to a polaroid complaint.
At the same time, while developing digital photography between 1972 and 1975 (without a necessary film), it persists in betting everything on classic devices and silver films, particularly with its APS format of owner, so that an important turn is missing.
It was not until 2004 that Kodak changed his strategy by focusing on digital technology. But it’s a bit late. The company is distant from its Japanese competitors in particular.
From the photo to the pharmacy
Among the losses of market share and its disconnection of certain activities, such as medical images, Kodak filed in bankruptcy in January 2012 and is under the protection of chapter 11 of the Banking Law, which allows you to freeze your claims evaluated at 6.75 billion dollars. That year, it has 17,000 employees against 64,000 a decade years before.
To recover, sell its beautiful patents to Apple and Google, change your organization, return to Wall Street and left the bankruptcy regime at the end of 2013, with only 7,500 remaining employees. Despite these efforts, profitability is struggling to return: the course of its action goes from $ 35 in 2013 to less than $ 3 in 2017.
In 2020, Kodak had an impulse from the US administration that invited him to transform himself into the producer of pharmaceutical ingredients. The activity “advanced materials and chemicals” is now in the heart of the group strategy with images and printing. But evil seems deeper in Kodak, who will have to face a new test of his long history.
Source: BFM TV
