Kodak says it might have to cease operations [updated]

Post by dotancohen » Thu, Aug 14, 2025, 4:31 AM UTC

bravesoul2 wrote: post #118

cowsandmilk wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would hardly describe a brand licensing agreement as a pivot of the company. A true pivot of Kodak was moving from just doing chemicals for film to doing chemicals for the pharmaceutical industry. That actually involved employees changing what they do, changing factory equipment, etc.

Interesting idea. Rather than the tired "they missed digital photography"... they could have seen it coming and pivoted to something where the experience transfers.

Post by achierius » Thu, Aug 14, 2025, 4:48 AM UTC

yieldcrv wrote: post #51

specproc wrote: post #15

Interesting to compare the tech companies of last century with those of this era. Kodak employed a whole town, and many more people besides. We're now waiting on a one-person unicorn. The number of people benefiting from an enterprise has shrunk considerably, with the benefits accruing more tightly within an already wealthy class.

People talk about physical goods and differences in scaling needs, one thing that bothers or excites me is noticing what the market tolerates. Many companies employed (and still employ) orders of magnitude more people than necessary just to be taken seriously. The executive team and board is stacked and diluting ownership just to get in rooms for more support and investors. This was arguably never necessary, and in m…

Post by smcin » Thu, Aug 14, 2025, 5:00 AM UTC

alephnerd wrote: post #62

glimshe wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Many tech companies still deal with physical goods and employ enough people to fill a city - but no longer in the US and Europe, generally. Whether we want them back is up to us.

Ever been to Folsom, Chandler, Olathe, Huntsville, Quad Cities, Peoria, Irvine, San Diego, North Chicago, East Liberty, Taylor, etc? We have seen a decrease in companies that work on physical engineering goods, but plenty still remain. The difference is, engineering physical goods has been increasingly automated and skilled for decades now (robotic manufacturing, additive manufacturing, CAD tooling, etc has been a th…

Post by vasco » Thu, Aug 14, 2025, 5:13 AM UTC

lenkite wrote: post #124

xenotux wrote: post #66

Not many people remember, but it wasn't that long ago that Kodak was "pivoting to crypto": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KodakCoin At that point, it was pretty clear that they're on borrowed time. I'm surprised they had enough runway / credit to make it to 2025.

Why didn't Kodak pivot to making smartphones ? As soon as the iPhone reveal happened, any sane executive would have realized that this is what they would need to do.

Post by ryao » Thu, Aug 14, 2025, 5:16 AM UTC

cowsandmilk wrote: post #104

xenotux wrote: post #66

Not many people remember, but it wasn't that long ago that Kodak was "pivoting to crypto": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KodakCoin At that point, it was pretty clear that they're on borrowed time. I'm surprised they had enough runway / credit to make it to 2025.

I would hardly describe a brand licensing agreement as a pivot of the company. A true pivot of Kodak was moving from just doing chemicals for film to doing chemicals for the pharmaceutical industry. That actually involved employees changing what they do, changing factory equipment, etc.