Hard to watch a company that once defined photography now circling the drain... especially one that literally invented the digital camera, then buried it to protect film sales
Kodak says it might have to cease operations [updated]
141–150 of 240 posts
Re: Kodak says it might have to cease operations [updated]
#142Earlier quoted context omitted.
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…
Order of magnitude, sure perhaps, even if not a given. But orders of magnitude? No, that doesn't match with my experience or historical evidence at all.
language exists to convey a shared concept, it was conveyed adequately in singular or plural form
Re: Kodak says it might have to cease operations [updated]
#143Maybe I'm reading the headlines wrong, but it doesn't seem like a lot of people read the actual press release and earnings report from the August 11th, 2025[1]: 1) The "Going Concern Assessment" that they put out was a regulatory requirement because they didn't have full control of the sale of parts of the pension. They say in the release that they're going to have the sale finalized on December 15th, with details on…
Headlines love a fall-from-grace narrative
Re: Kodak says it might have to cease operations [updated]
#144Interesting 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.
Companies like Kodak, IBM, and GE weren't just employers - they were ecosystems. Entire towns thrived around them.
Re: Kodak says it might have to cease operations [updated]
#145Back in the day when photographic plates were used to capture images from astronomical telescopes, occasionally the excitement of a new discovery was followed by the disappointment of realizing that it was just a blemish in the emulsion, also known as an "Eastman Kodak Object".
Kind of poetic, though, that Kodak's legacy reached all the way into space
Re: Kodak says it might have to cease operations [updated]
#146My grandpa (father's father) grew up in Rochester and that was the first time I visited New York for a family reunion, way back in the early aughts. Kodak was the major employer in town then; he and practically everyone he knew either worked there, had dealings with them in some form, or knew many others who did. When we went, I had the pleasure of touring the place and hearing plenty of stories from my gramps and ou…
A reminder that companies like Kodak weren't just brands
Re: Kodak says it might have to cease operations [updated]
#147Earlier 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.
They did do more than just chemicals for film, but then decided to spin off the business so that they could focus on the film business: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastman_Chemical_Company One really must admire their determination to throw all of the life boats overboard to go down with the film ship. Every time they have a chance to save themselves if they move away from a single minded focus on film, they discar…
That's way too simplified. There's no "just" mimic Nikon and Canon and every other company which tried that died or pivoted away from the try.
Re: Kodak says it might have to cease operations [updated]
#148Earlier quoted context omitted.
Kodak _invented_ digital photography.
And then shelved it, fearing that it would cannibalise their film sales
And then was a leader in digital sensors. But film sales collapsed basically overnight, not in a slower slope as projected.
Kodak mgmt wasn't crazy or anything like that.
Re: Kodak says it might have to cease operations [updated]
#149Maybe I'm reading the headlines wrong, but it doesn't seem like a lot of people read the actual press release and earnings report from the August 11th, 2025[1]: 1) The "Going Concern Assessment" that they put out was a regulatory requirement because they didn't have full control of the sale of parts of the pension. They say in the release that they're going to have the sale finalized on December 15th, with details on…
> I'd love to be corrected if I'm misreading this, but the reports of Kodak's death seem greatly exaggerated The basic background here is that Kodak has been pivotting at least for last 40 years. - 1980s: Kodak tried to become a Chemical magnate. This strategy was abandoned in 1990s. - 1990s: Kodak tried to become a Digital Imaging company. While it saw a brief success, Kodak lost the competition. - 2000s: Kodak trie…
Maybe they should pivot into human robots, self-driving and robo-taxis next.
I heard it pays out well regardless of whether your product being sub-par or non existing at all
Re: Kodak says it might have to cease operations [updated]
#150Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah, and why not spaceships too.
Spaceships do not form the critical part of a functional smartphone. Cameras do.
Kodak had no specialization into cameras, only into camera films, let alone digital cameras. There are actually few good digital camera manufacturers in the world. Most high end camera in smartphone are from Sony or Samsung who were already specialized in electronics way before the digital camera / smartphone era.