InfoAnda - Focus on past glory kept Kodak from digital win |

Pakistanis angry over detentions in Times Sq. case
Monday, May 24, 2010
ISLAMABAD – Relatives of three men detained by Pakistan for alleged links to the suspect in the attempted Times Square bombing say the men are innocent.
They

Taiwan denies boycotting Australian film festival
Thursday, August 6, 2009

AFP - Thursday, August 6TAIPEI (AFP) - - Taiwan's Beijing-friendly government on Wednesday denied boycotting an Australian film festival amid a row over the e

Merkel's support dips, regional ally resigns International
Thursday, September 3, 2009

By Sarah Marsh and Noah Barkin

BERLIN (Reuters) - Chancellor Angela Merkel suffered a double blow on Thursday as a senior party ally in east German

Minister seeks closure of anti-Berlusconi websites
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
ROME (AFP) - – The Italian government moved Tuesday to close down Internet sites encouraging further violence against Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who

Asian markets mixed after Wall Street rally
Wednesday, March 18, 2009

By ELAINE KURTENBACH,AP Business Writer AP - Wednesday, March 18SHANGHAI - Asia's stock market rally seemed to be running out of steam Wednesday, despite an

Paul Reiser makes unusual suspect for music album | | 8 December 2010
Explosions, gunfire in central Bangkok | 13 May 2010
Filipinos freed by Somali pirates return home | 2 May 2009

Hollywood Golden Age a hot look at Golden Globes | | 16 January 2012

Forum Views () Forum Replies ()

Read more with google mobile : Focus on past glory kept Kodak from digital win |

Edition: U.S. Africa Arabic Argentina Brazil Canada China France Germany India Italy Japan Latin America Mexico Russia Spain United Kingdom Home Business Business Home Economy Davos 2012 Technology Media Small Business Legal Deals Earnings Summits Business Video The Freeland File Markets Markets Home U.S. Markets European Markets Asian Markets Global Market Data Indices M&A Stocks Bonds Currencies Commodities Futures Funds peHUB World World Home U.S. Brazil China Euro Zone Japan Mexico Russia India Insight World Video Reuters Investigates Decoder Politics Politics Home Election 2012 Issues 2012 Candidates 2012 Tales from the Trail Political Punchlines Supreme Court Politics Video Tech Technology Home MediaFile Science Tech Video Tech Tonic Opinion Opinion Home Chrystia Freeland John Lloyd Felix Salmon Jack Shafer David Rohde Bernd Debusmann Nader Mousavizadeh Lucy P. Marcus David Cay Johnston Bethany McLean Edward Hadas Hugo Dixon Ian Bremmer Mohamed El-Erian Lawrence Summers Susan Glasser The Great Debate Steven Brill Geraldine Fabrikant Breakingviews Equities Credit Private Equity M&A Macro & Markets Politics Breakingviews Video Money Money Home Global Investing MuniLand Unstructured Finance Linda Stern Mark Miller John Wasik James Saft Analyst Research Alerts Watchlist Portfolio Stock Screener Fund Screener Personal Finance Video Money Clip Life Health Sports Arts Faithworld Business Traveler Entertainment Oddly Enough Lifestyle Video Pictures Pictures Home Reuters Photographers Full Focus Video Reuters TV Reuters News Article Comments (0) Follow Reuters Facebook Twitter RSS YouTube Read More cracks found in Airbus A380 wings 8:27am EST Iran warns region against "dangerous" stance on Hormuz 4:01pm EST Perry ends presidential run, backs Gingrich | 2:05pm EST Power out, snowfall records smashed in Seattle 11:41am EST Apple jumps into digital textbooks fray 3:15pm EST Discussed 123 Romney opens 21-point lead in South Carolina: Reuters/Ipsos poll 109 Obama set to reject Keystone oil pipeline: sources 95 Ohio woman loses appeal on ”White Only” pool sign Watched Was there a rape on Big Brother? Wed, Jan 18 2012 Will Russia spill blood? Tue, Jan 17 2012 Obama rejects Keystone pipeline Wed, Jan 18 2012 Focus on past glory kept Kodak from digital win Tweet Share this Email Print Related News MARKET PULSE-US stocks to watch: Kodak, Bank of America 10:20am EST UPDATE 3-Kodak files for bankruptcy, secures $950 mln lifeline 2:31am EST Japan's Fujifilm calls for Swiss-style yen Wed, Jan 18 2012 Exclusive: TPG willing to invest $1 billion in Olympus Fri, Jan 13 2012 UPDATE 1-Market Chatter -- Corporate finance press digest Fri, Jan 13 2012 Analysis & Opinion M & A wrap: Kodak files for bankruptcy A municipal bankruptcy does not ruin a state Related Topics Tech » Deals » Global Deals Review: 2011 Q3 » Global Deals Review: 2011 Q2 » Global Deals Review » Inflows Outflows » Media » Consumer Electronics Show » A Kodak Retina camera is seen in a photo store in London January 19, 2012. Eastman Kodak Co, the photography icon that invented the hand-held camera and helped bring the world the first pictures from the moon, has filed for bankruptcy protection, capping a prolonged plunge for one of America's best-known companies. Credit: Reuters/Stefan Wermuth By Ernest Scheyder NEW YORK | Thu Jan 19, 2012 12:10pm EST NEW YORK (Reuters) - Eastman Kodak Co's long decline that culminated in a bankruptcy filing on Thursday can be traced back to one source: the former king of photography's failure to reinvent itself in the digital age. The more than 130-year-old American icon filed for Chapter 11 protection in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York, saying it had obtained a $950 million credit facility to stay afloat while it tries to cut more than $6 billion in liabilities. The filing was not unexpected: Kodak has already become a cautionary tale for anyone considering a career in business. Students at top M.B.A. programs read a case study each year that explores, in painful detail, the strategic mistakes that led to the company's slide as digital photography overtook film. Unlike peers such as IBM and Xerox Corp, which managed to create new revenue streams when their legacy businesses declined, critics fault Kodak for abandoning new projects too quickly, for spreading its digital investments too broadly, and for a complacency in its Rochester, New York, base that blinded the company from technological leaps elsewhere. "The seeds of the problems of today go back several decades," said Rosabeth Kanter, the Arbuckle professor of business administration at Harvard Business School. "Kodak was very Rochester-centric and never really developed a presence in centers of the world that were developing new technologies," she said. "It's like they're living in a museum." CRIPPLED BY NOSTALGIA In 1888, George Eastman invented a machine that captured images on large plates of glass. Not content with that breakthrough, he went on to develop roll film and later the Brownie camera. His company became a household name by helping Americans record their most important life events, first in black-and-white prints and then in Kodachrome color, coining the ubiquitous phrase "It's a Kodak moment." In the 1960s, Kodak began to study the potential of computers and made a big break in 1975, when one of its engineers, Steve Sasson, invented the digital camera -- a toaster-sized image sensor that captured rough hues of black and white. But Kodak did not immediately recognize its mass-market potential and focused instead on high-end cameras for niche markets. Executives also feared cannibalizing their core film sales. "When (George Eastman) died, he had exerted such an influence on the company that one of the things that Kodak immediately became bound up in nostalgia," said Nancy West, a University of Missouri professor who wrote a history of Kodak's early years. "Nostalgia's lovely, but it doesn't allow people to move forward." Sony Corp launched its own digital camera in 1981, a development that sent "fear through the company," according to a Kodak case study written by Harvard professors Giovanni Gavetti and Rebecca Henderson. The paper is studied at Columbia, the University of Chicago and other top business schools. Despite those chills, it was not until a decade later in 1991 that Kodak's first digital product for every-day use hit the market, and it was not a camera, but a Photo CD. Kodak introduced a line of pocket-sized digital cameras in 1996 with the DC20, but made its biggest push into the marketplace in 2001 with the Easyshare brand. By then, the field was already crowded with products from Canon Inc and other Asian manufacturers. MISSED OPPORTUNITIES Kodak said in its filing that it hoped to emerge from bankruptcy in 2013. It tried to restructure in the past by closing 13 film plants and 130 photo labs between 2004 and 2007, slashing its workforce by 50,000. The loan and bankruptcy protection from U.S. trade creditors may give Kodak the time it needs to find buyers for some of its 1,100 digital patents -- key to its remaining value -- and to reshape the business while continuing to pay its 17,000 workers. Kodak Chief Executive Antonio Perez, who had once called digital cameras a "crappy business," said bankruptcy was a necessary step. "Now we must complete the transformation by further addressing our cost structure and effectively monetizing non-core intellectual-property assets," Perez said. At the annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last week, Perez and Kodak introduced two new cameras it said could connect wirelessly with printers and post pictures to Facebook. But some gadget reviewers were unexcited, saying the new cameras could not connect to the Web without piggybacking on a smartphone or Wi-Fi connection. "People aren't just intrigued by new features unless it's something revolutionary. These are incremental features," said Suzanne Kantra, editor of the tech blog Techlicious and a former tech editor at Popular Science. "Being able to get to the front of the pack again is going to require a much-bigger leap." Analysts said Kodak could have become a social media powerhouse if it had successfully convinced consumers to use its online service to store, share and edit their pictures. Instead, Kodak focused too much on devices, and lost the online battle to social networks like Facebook. ATTEMPTS AT DIVERSIFICATION Over the years, Kodak has dabbled in different products to diversify its business. In 1988, it bought Sterling Drug for $5.1 billion, best known for making Lysol cleaning products. That deal saddled Kodak with too much debt, which had swelled to $9.3 billion by 1993. Kodak spun off its chemical arm Eastman Chemical Co in 1994 to help reduce debt, only to then sell Sterling off in parts the same year. "All these attempts to sort of move the company in different directions, that's a problem of not wanting to embrace change," West said. By 1993, Kodak had spent $5 billion on digital imaging research, but the funds were being diverted to 23 separate digital scanner projects. The money did help Kodak capture an early lead in the market and it had a 27 percent market share by 1999. But that slipped to 15 percent by 2003 and 7 percent by 2010, as Kodak ceded ground to Canon, Nikon Corp and others. Kodak was losing $60 for every digital camera it sold by 2001 and it was trying to quell a war that had erupted between its digital and film staff, according to the Harvard case study. By 2007, the company realized it needed to put more resources into the consumer camera market so it sold its healthcare imaging unit, which made X-ray equipment for hospitals and dentists and had been highly lucrative since 1896. Kodak pocketed $2.35 billion from the sale to private equity firm Onex, but analysts said it was a mistake to get out of the business when baby boomers were about to retire in droves and demand for X-rays would increase. Kodak's logic for the deal: it did not want to spend the money to evolve the health business to all-digital technology. "In the law we call it, 'a bird that likes to fly backwards.' Because, it's more comfortable looking where it's been than where it's going," said Dan Alef, the author of a biography on George Eastman. "George Eastman never looked back," he said. "He always looked forward to doing something better than what he had done, even if he had the best on the market at the time." Eastman, who had suffered from a painful spinal disorder, committed suicide with a bullet to the heart in 1932 at age 77, leaving a note that said: "My work is done." PATENT SALE Financial analysts consider Kodak's technology patents to be its most valuable asset, saying its best hope is the sale of imaging patents that could fetch more than $1 billion. Most digital cameras in the world use technology patented in part by Kodak, making the holdings highly lucrative. Kodak recently sued Apple Inc and HTC Corp, complaining of a breach of those patents. The bankruptcy filing puts Kodak in the company of movie rental chain Blockbuster and bookstore owner Borders, which both collapsed after struggling to compete with digital rivals. "They'll hopefully come out a much leaner, more financially stable company that will allow them to focus on whatever their core business is going to be," said Craig Welin, a restructuring attorney at Frandzel, Robins, Bloom & Csato law firm in Los Angeles. "But it'll be very interesting to see what's left at the end of the day." (Reporting By Ernest Scheyder and Liana B. Baker; Editing by Tiffany Wu and Maureen Bavdek) Tech Deals Global Deals Review: 2011 Q3 Global Deals Review: 2011 Q2 Global Deals Review Inflows Outflows Media Consumer Electronics Show Related Quotes and News Company Price Related News Tweet this Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints We welcome comments that advance the story through relevant opinion, anecdotes, links and data. If you see a comment that you believe is irrelevant or inappropriate, you can flag it to our editors by using the report abuse links. Views expressed in the comments do not represent those of Reuters. For more information on our comment policy, see http://blogs.reuters.com/fulldisclosure/2010/09/27/toward-a-more-thoughtful-conversation-on-stories/ Comments (0) Be the first to comment on reuters.com. Add yours using the box above. Edition: U.S. Africa Arabic Argentina Brazil Canada China France Germany India Italy Japan Latin America Mexico Russia Spain United Kingdom Back to top Reuters.com Business Markets World Politics Technology Opinion Money Pictures Videos Site Index Legal Bankruptcy Law California Legal New York Legal Securities Law Support & Contact Support Corrections Advertise With Us Connect with Reuters Twitter Facebook LinkedIn RSS Podcast Newsletters Mobile About Privacy Policy Terms of Use Our Flagship financial information platform incorporating Reuters Insider An ultra-low latency infrastructure for electronic trading and data distribution A connected approach to governance, risk and compliance Our next generation legal research platform Our global tax workstation Thomsonreuters.com About Thomson Reuters Investor Relations Careers Contact Us Thomson Reuters is the world's largest international multimedia news agency, providing investing news, world news, business news, technology news, headline news, small business news, news alerts, personal finance, stock market, and mutual funds information available on Reuters.com, video, mobile, and interactive television platforms. Thomson Reuters journalists are subject to an Editorial Handbook which requires fair presentation and disclosure of relevant interests. NYSE and AMEX quotes delayed by at least 20 minutes. Nasdaq delayed by at least 15 minutes. For a complete list of exchanges and delays, please click here.

Other News on Friday, 20 January 2012
Earthquake hits northeast Iran, 100 injured |
Oil rig arrives for Cuba offshore exploration work |
Salvage firms jostle for wrecked Italian liner |
Yemen amends immunity law, Saleh still protected |
Ethiopia sends elders to help release abducted |
Thousands march in Turkey for slain journalist |
Google revenue misses Wall Street targets |
Focus on past glory kept Kodak from digital win |
U.S. accuses website, execs of copyright infringement |
Amazon's India launch may be limited: report |
EU to decide on Google, Motorola Mobility deal Feb 13 |
South Carolina Democrats unamused by Colbert's ploy |
Michelle Obama: From kids TV to late night with Leno |
The Help leads NAACP Image Award nominees |
Sundance opens with eye on broken American dreams |
American Idol debut hits sour note |
Exclusive: Senior al Qaeda figure killed in drone strike |
Syria killings persist as Arab monitors' mandate expires |
Marine tape reaction sets Taliban fighters against commanders |
Iran says scientist's killer may have used U.N. info |
Iran warns region against dangerous stance on Hormuz |
Rescue work on capsized ship suspended after it moves again |
Six foreign troops dead in U.S. helicopter crash in Afghanistan |
Insight: Freed prisoners add momentum, risks to Myanmar reform |
Miracle man to stand for South Korean presidency |
Google results fall short, rare miss hurts shares |
IBM, other tech results point to robust IT demand |
U.S. shuts Megaupload.com, hackers retaliate |
How one Egyptian sold a revolution on the Web |
Verizon Wireless, partners resist Sprint, DirecTV |
Microsoft's Windows battles slack PC sales |
Intel boosts capex, beats tempered expectations |
Sundance opens with eye on broken American dreams |
Paul McCartney blows Kiss to Hollywood |
Willie and the Hand Jive singer Johnny Otis dies at 90 |
The Artist wins big at London Critics' Circle awards |
Man pleads no contest to stalking Halle Berry |
Major powers to say terms for Iran's return to talks |
Six U.S. Marines killed in Afghan helicopter crash |
U.S. Treasury, State officials to travel to Israel |
IAEA rejects Iran accusation over scientist's killing |
Ship sinking after collision in Bosphorus: agent |
France threatens Afghan pullout after troops killed |
Yemen immunity law partially protects Saleh aides |
Google shares slide; analysts stay upbeat |
Vodafone wins India tax battle, shares rise |
Analysis: Europe's telcos no haven with the wolf at the door |
Samsung suffers German court setback in Apple battle |
Sony, Panasonic debt ratings cut on TV losses |
Italian Nanni Moretti to head Cannes jury |
Gay honor killing movie shakes Turkey up |
Greece at new risk of being pushed off euro
Bodies of missing Tenn. mom, Jo Ann Bain, and daughter found
Female Breasts Are Bigger Than Ever
AMD Trinity Accelerated Processing Units Now in Volume Production
The Avengers (2012 film), made the second biggest opening- and single-day gross of all-time
AMD to Start Production of piledriver
Ivy Bridge Quad-Core, Four-Thread Desktop CPUs
Islamists Protest Lady Gaga's Concert in Indonesia
Japan Successfully Broadcasts an 8K Signal Over the Air
ECB boosts loans to 1 trillion Euro to stop credit crunch
Egypt : Mohammed Morsi won with 52 percent
What do you call 100,000 Frenchmen with their hands up
AMD Launches AMD Embedded R-Series APU Platform
Fed Should not Ignore Emerging Market Crisis
Fed casts shadow over India, emerging markets
Why are Chinese tourists so rude? A few insights

USD EUR - 1 year graph		BlogMeter 1.01