Kenny Suleimanagich looks at how the digital technology Kodak did much to invent helped undermine a legendary American company. The peak at Kodak was impressive:
At its peak, in 1996, Kodak was rated the fourth-most-valuable global
brand. That year, the company had about two-thirds of the global photo
market, annual revenues of $16 billion, and a market capitalization of
$31 billion. At the time of its peak local employment, in 1982, the company had over 60,000 workers in Rochester, most of whom worked in Kodak Park,
as it’s known to employees and locals. The campus, a private city
within the city, sprawled over 120 acres with its own power plant and
fire department, once stood as a monument of imaging and innovation.
Today it still stands, but vastly scaled back from the days when film
production was at the core of Kodak’s work.
Now:
With a bitter blizzard hammering down in upstate New York, a bankruptcy judge had just approved a proposal
to resolve a big chunk of Kodak’s $6.8 billion in debt and pave the way
for it to emerge from Chapter 11 after more than a year of insolvency.
The company expects to finalize the process and exit bankruptcy
protection in the third quarter of this year.
Why didn't they go whole-hog into digital? Possibly because the film business was so profitable for so long they couldn't bring themselves to give it up.
No comments:
Post a Comment