Kodak Officially Files for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Protection
Eastman Kodak has filed for Chapter 11 in an effort to stay afloat while it undergoes a lengthy restructuring.
Imaging company Kodak has filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy protection. The news comes a little over a fortnight after the Wall Street Journal cites sources that said Kodak would file before the end of January. According to the filing, which was obtained by the folks over at the Verge, Kodak had $5.1 billion in assets and $6.75 billion in debt as of September 30th, 2011.
The company today revealed that it has obtained a $950 million debtor-in-possession credit facility with an 18-month maturity from Citigroup and expects to complete restructuring by 2013. Kodak has also called in Lazard, FTI Consulting Inc. and Sullivan & Cromwell to advise in the restructuring. Dominic DiNapoli, Vice Chairman of FTI Consulting, has been named Chief Restructuring Officer.
"Kodak is taking a significant step toward enabling our enterprise to complete its transformation," said Antonio M. Perez, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer.
"At the same time as we have created our digital business, we have also already effectively exited certain traditional operations, closing 13 manufacturing plants and 130 processing labs, and reducing our workforce by 47,000 since 2003," he continued. "Now we must complete the transformation by further addressing our cost structure and effectively monetizing non-core IP assets. We look forward to working with our stakeholders to emerge a lean, world-class, digital imaging and materials science company."
Kodak has a portfolio of 1,100 patents, mostly relating to digital-imaging. Though Perez mentioned monetizing the company's non-core IP assets, he did not clarify whether this meant Kodak would be looking to sell of some, or even all, of its patents. Wall Street Journal sources that predicted the filing said that the company would only file for Chapter 11 if efforts to sell off a 'trove of digital patents' were unsuccessful.
You can read more about Kodak's restructuring and Chapter 11 filing on the website the company has set up. There you'll find information for everyone from consumers to commercial partners and employees.
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Another American Icon bites the dust. I feel somewhat bad for Kodak because I think management could have dug them out if they had better insight and innovation. I mean the company had a lot of experience in optics.
Yeah, I still remember my first Instamatic camera...
...and then later using process E6 to develop my own slides in H.S., and at home.
please please please don't let kodak become the usual "if you can't innovate, litigate" type of company.
i dont own any Kodak products -- PROBLEM
make products that the normal consumer wants and/or needs
Kodak was good when it came out....now, not so much....they forgot how to be original
At first glance I thought it said Kotick, I am disappoint.
I have a few Kodak products. The cameras are actually pretty good and the optics on them are good. And I have found that mine holds up better than some other brands. Still though they have an image problem.
Still though they have an image problem.
Actually they have a "No Image" problem. It's not like they have a reputation for bad cameras, they have no reputation at all. I mean, after reading the title I suddenly realized that Kodak was a name that I didn't encounter these last years, it's like an image from the past.