What a Sad Day

Ernie Irvan and Sterling Marlin once ruled the roost in the car above. The glory days in racing for the famed multi-time Daytona winning Morgan-McClure #4 are fading into the distant past as this sad news hits. Who'd have ever thought it?

Eastman Kodak Files for Bankruptcy
By MICHAEL J. DE LA MERCED

Eastman Kodak, the 131-year-old film pioneer that has been struggling for years to adapt to an increasingly digital world, filed for bankruptcy protection early on Thursday.

The American legend had tried a number of turnaround strategies and cost-cutting efforts in recent years, but the company which since 2004 has reported only one full year of profit ran short of cash.

Since 2008, despite Kodaks best efforts, restructuring costs and recessionary forces have continued to negatively impact the companys liquidity position, Kodaks chief financial officer, Antoinette P. McCorvey, said in a court filing on Thursday.

Citigroup is providing Kodak with $950 million in financing to allow the company to keep going. Kodak plans to continue operating normally during bankruptcy.

The company will also seek to continue selling a portfolio of 1,100 digital imaging patents to raise cash for its loss-making operations.

Kodak has become the latest giant to falter in the face of advancing technology. The Borders Group liquidated last year after having failed to gain a toehold in e-books, while Blockbuster sold itself to Dish Network last year as its retail outlets lost ground to online competitors like Netflix.

Founded in 1880 by George Eastman, Kodak became one of Americas most notable companies, helping establish the market for camera film and then dominating the field. But it has suffered from a variety of problems over the last four decades.

First came foreign competitors, notably Fujifilm of Japan, which undercut Kodaks prices. Then the onset of digital photography eroded demand for traditional film, squeezing Kodaks business so much that in 2003 the company said that it would halt investing in its longtime product.

The Chapter 11 filing was made in United States Bankruptcy Court in Lower Manhattan. Kodak said that its non-American subsidiaries were not part of the filing.

The company said that it had about $5.1 billion in assets and nearly $6.8 billion in debts. Its biggest group of unsecured creditors are bondholders represented by the Bank of New York Mellon who are owed $658 million.

Kodak is taking a significant step toward enabling our enterprise to complete its transformation, Antonio M. Perez, the companys chief executive, said in a news release. 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. Now we must complete the transformation by further addressing our cost structure and effectively monetizing non-core I.P. assets.

Under Mr. Perez, who joined Kodak from Hewlett-Packard in 2003, the company has bet on inkjet printers. That strategy has yet to bear fruit, however.

It has also turned to patent lawsuits to generate revenue, winning settlements from the likes of LG of South Korea.
Antonio M. Perez is the latest in a line of Kodak chiefs who have tried to remake the company after its film dominance eroded.Jonathan Fickies/Bloomberg NewsAntonio M. Perez, chief executive of Kodak.

Nonetheless, the company has burned through its cash reserves, stoking concerns that it may run out of money. As of Sept. 30, Kodak reported having $900 million in cash and short-term investments.

As a last-ditch effort to raise cash, Kodak announced last July that it had hired Lazard to sell its digital imaging patents, hoping to cash in on a frenzy for intellectual property that drove Googles $12.5 billion takeover of Motorola Mobility. But the company had failed to garner enough interest among potential buyers, driven in part by fears of Kodaks deteriorating financial health.

But by the fall, it became apparent that Kodak was also preparing for a potential Chapter 11 filing, hiring advisers who could help with a court-supervised restructuring. As reports swirled about Kodaks preparations for bankruptcy, some of the companys vendors stopped providing services or demanding quicker payments, the company said in a court filing on Thursday.

Besides potentially aiding in the patent sale, bankruptcy protection could also allow Kodak to shed hundreds of millions of dollars in pension obligations. Kodak said in a filing that it contributed about $245 million to its United States pension obligations last year, and that it has been unable to shrink those liabilities to a more manageable level.

Earlier this month, Kodak announced a corporate overhaul that split its businesses into consumer and commercial segments, which some analysts said could aid in the sale of parts of the business.

The company has also filed new patent infringement suits against a number of competitors, including Fujifilm and Apple Inc., an effort to shore up the value of the patents it hopes to sell.

In a court filing, Kodak argued that Apple, the BlackBerry device maker Research in Motion and HTC of Taiwan all owed the company substantial royalties for the use of its patents in their smartphones. Reaching licensing agreements with these companies, as Kodak has done with Motorola and LG, could reap Kodak substantial fees.

Kodak is being advised by Lazard, FTI Consulting and the law firm Sullivan & Cromwell. The company said that Dominic DiNapoli, vice chairman of F

One of my relatives worked for Kodak. If he was alive he would be very sad to see this. I can remember driving past all the plants in Rochester where they made the film and other things photography related. I do not know how that town will survive. They got Xerox and Bausch & Lomb still. But amazing how after all the contributions of Kodak and its dead. Upstate NY is dying. It seems like since the mid 90s factories and companies have closed. It is indeed the rust belt now.

Yep, upon his return from WWII, my Dad went to work for Kodak. All my uncles there in Rochester worked for Kodak. Everytime we visited Rochester, we went by the plant. All my camera and all my film was Kodak all my life up until about 10 years ago. It is a sad day.

Paul Mcartney met his first wife as she was a photographer, Linda Eastman.

One of my best Wrangler truck drivers went to work in the late 70s for a Kodak chemical operation in Kingsport, Tennessee. Don't know if that operation still exists or how it would be affected. Hurts to see a company that was a respected worldwide giant stumble off the main stage.

It is sad, and to some extent, Kodak may have been asleep at the wheel, but the world literally changed around them. Kodak-size firms can't easily re-invent themselves overnight. But, what's even more alarming is what it all represents, or, fore-tells. No one could have predicted what's now happening. The advancing digital/electronic/communication phenomena is literally transforming all of society. Already outdated: the entire print media, the traditional library, and the traditional brick and mortar classroom. Can the classic web-site even withstand the onslaught of new-age social-media? Everything is in a state of technological flux; Kodak will not be the last victim.

When the "new" Richmond track layout opened in September 1988, a state of the art infield media center opened with it. That media center boasted two large darkrooms for use by photographers from Associated Press, UPI, and the Richmond newspapers (there were two at the time). Almost before the media center was up and running UPI had faltered and was almost a non-entity by the time the respected Deb Williams left its Raleigh bureau to join Rob Grigg's Charlotte-based Grand National Scene Newspaper.

I remember Steve Helber (Virginia state AP photo chief) one day showing me some cameras that he said he could transmit photos directly over our phone lines without developing any film in the darkroom. Within two years of that race we were using our two fancy darkrooms to store food that the caterer was preparing for the press corps. Who could have seen how quickly the change would come as Bobby noted above.

Guess I'm a bigger sissy than I thought I'd be. Guess I'd rather see Pearson & Petty come off #4 at Daytona side-by-side than the Busch Brothers. Guess I'd rather see modified coupes on the 1/3-mile at Southside than the things that look like spaceships. Guess I'd pay big bucks to see Al Grinnan and Mutt Powell banging each other on the dirt through the turns at Wilson just one more time. Guess I'd also like to turn on the tv one afternoon and see Howdy Doody. But we know none of those things will come to pass. As PattyKay so neatly summed up, it's our turn to be the generation left behind. However, there is a little speck of hope on the horizon with the approaching activities at the Historic Cleveland County Fairgrounds Speedway. I definitely don't want to give up my air conditioning or microwave - two things we didn't have at my house growing up.