The Picture for Kodak Is Not Pretty

I live about 45 minutes from Rochester NY where Eastman Kodak is headquartered. It is such a shame that this once industrial giant may soon face bankruptcy. I first started buying Eastman Kodak Stock in the late 1970's. I at that time also did photography work doing wedding photos. I always used Kodak Film. However on week I received a free roll of 35 mm film from a outfit called Fuji based in Japan. I tried it and it was great. I at that point Kodak had serious competition on the horizon. I held back on selling my stock in Kodak because I knew they had developed digital photography and as a professional in the business I had been invited to see the "new wonder" that would eventually replace roll film. In the late 1980's the Board of Directors chose a new Chairman of the Board by the name of Fischer. Mr. Fischer convinced the Board that Kodak had a great many resources and was a company awash in profits. he promised to "deliver more shareholder value" to the stockholders. He at first eliminated about 5000 positions in the Rochester area. Next he took full assessment of Kodak's very profitable side businesses like Great Lakes Chemical, the new and yet unprofitable Kodak Battery business, and about a dozen other smaller and almost hidden gems Kodak had and sold off the most profitable ones. I got a call from a Bear Sterns Broker and wanted me to buy more Kodak. I replied that I did not care to invest anymore money in Kodak. He said Mr. Fischer was a financial Genius and had brought the share price from $40 per share to $80 and it was on it's way up. I said no thank you. My father also a large shareholder and I discussed Mr. Fischer's plan of shareholder value and both of us determined that it was a cannibalization of a great company. We got out at $56 per share. Mr. Fischer continued to insist that further lay offs would be the key to advancing share prices. The last year of Mr. Fischer's tenure as Chairman were marked by a huge news conference that he announce that Kodak would do what it did best and make better roll film. During the press release most of the photographers were using expensive digital cameras, and Mr. Fischer explained because of the huge cost to buy and use digital cameras would garunttee huge sales in roll film. Mr. Fischer was not re-elected the next year to the Board and he left Kodak a greatly disorganized and downsized company that had invented digital photography and was facing severe financial constraints. Over 40,000 people lost good paying and I might add non union jobs and the City of Rochester also began to slide downhill. The lesson to be learned is many CEO's who talk the talk but can't walk the walk continue to destroy great American Companies. What a shame so much was lost due to ineptness.

I would remind the reader that a guy named George Fisher left Motorola to take the top spot at Kodak. They gave him 1,000,0000 shares and he promptly sold out @$90.00; so he takes $90,000,000 out and leaves the company which he had figured out was not to be saved. The employees got screwed; the stockholders got screwed but Fisher is living the high life for less than two years work. Adam Smith must be laughing at us!

It's too bad. They still have the best 35mm film out there, which is almost obsolete. There digital cameras are a great value but it is hard to compete with bigger fish in the sea ie. Sony, Panasonic,Leica, etc. Its hard to compete with them. Maybe they should start making LED tvs.

Long gone are the days when you had to 'snd away' or 'hand in' a 'film to be developed. Might take up to two weeks by 'post' , then half of them are 'blurred'. Not now it's all 'digital' , fast , perfect and cheap ( bit like me)

When any technology company transitions from being run by engineers and sales to accounting & law the beginning of the end is upon them. Oh sure...the accountants cut the fat and the skill to improve the bottom line...temporarily...but eventually after the talent is gone, and the competitors catch up...these same accountants can't justify bringing the talent back. Don't fight it....just exit stage left...

Momma don't take my Kodachrome awayyyyyyy!

I live in Rochester, and most my family has worked at Kodak at one time or another, including myself. The demise has been occuring for 20 years. Most of the cause is decision making. They had the capital early on to invest and become part of the digital revoution, but instead spent thier efforts on fighting it. They tried to make the "advantix" digital camera that used proprietary parts, and methods of printing, etc and the competition killed it. They sold most of thier smaller, more profitable technology companies that they once owned in order to focus on film buisness - in an era when it was clear to most that film was dying. These companies are now flourishing while Kodak is tearing down buildings. The last career fair that I went to at RIT had a booth for fuji, but none for Kodak. The result of a large american corporation that was used to growing without competition. They could never go lean enough to recover.

Well I own a Kodak digital camera and love it. It sits in its docking station ready for use at any moment..no worries about charging batteries or carrying extra batteries. I hope Kodak can survive, hate to lose them.

Kodak is no longer a dominant employer in Rochester. It employs less than 8,000 people locally , down from over 60,000 in its hey days. Other, more nomble,high tech firms and Univ. of Rochester have filled theVoid left by Kodak and a much smaller Xerox to a lesser extent. Unemployment rate in the Rochester region today is much lower than the National average.
While it is sad to see Kodak wither away like this, Rochester will survive it.

hope they don't go bust. like to get a kodak printer the next time. their cartridges are about half price compared to hp. anyone have experience with kodak printer?

mama don't take my kodachrome away

Sign of changes and the times in a fast pace world of ours... I really hope Kodak can come thought it and get lean and mean again. Good luck......

Wow... they invented the digital camera?? That's like a mouse inventing the mouse trap.

AGFA, Fujifilm and Polaroid are down, too.

This is no different 100 year ago when that new fangled contraption called a automobile replaced the horse drawn carriage. People who made carriages lost their jobs, most of them went to work to build cars.

A company that has had a monopoly or close to a monopoly has a real problem dealing with competition. They don't know how to deal with it. They tend to have arrogance that no one else is around to challenge them.

kodak makes some of the finest DIGITAL imaging sensors available today. Large format digital cameras use 40, 50, 60, 70 megapixal sensors made by kodak.

It should be pointed out here that Kodak lost ground not to Chinese companies but to Japanese companies. Today everybody blames China for everything that is wrong with America, when in fact it has been a long term effort on the part of the Japs to bring down America. Anyone here every hear of Fuji, Toyota, Sony, etc?

This was a pretty good talk about the demise of Kodak. But I do take exception of how they say an iPhone can take better pictures than film. That is complete bunk. Film is still king in many areas that digital can't touch. Digital won because it is much more convenient and cheaper in the long run. It didn't win cause of image quality potential cause film still wins in that regard.

I have two of their digitals and memory cards and they develop my photos and mail them and I am sooo sorry. Hopefully they will come up with something to pull them up.