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Kodak says it might have to cease operations [updated]

cnn.com

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Re: Kodak says it might have to cease operations [updated]

#181

Post by VerminOctopus1 »

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…

I’m having a lot of trouble parsing your post. You’re excited that billionaires will be able to swing around more billions than ever… to employ less people? What?

Re: Kodak says it might have to cease operations [updated]

#182

Post by kriro »

tejtm wrote: post #156
actionfromafar wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

They thought people wanted to have pictures. Instead, we just wanted to take pictures.

I'd say take and share. Seems like people these days value pictures not as a snapshot for themselves (memory) but rather as a snapshot to show themselves to others (projection). Or at least there was some sort of shift.

Re: Kodak says it might have to cease operations [updated]

#183

Post by jkrom3 »

kalleboo wrote: post #168
enaaem wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interestingly, Fujifilm has pivoted to a like a dozen other industries successfully and it's now a full blown conglomerate.

And yet right now they’re back to chemical photography film being over 50% of their revenue due to the breakout success of the instax instant cameras. Being able to charge a dollar per photo remains an unbeatable business to be in.

I love instax… it’s seriously so good. The wide version especially. I’m addicted to shooting it.

Re: Kodak says it might have to cease operations [updated]

#184

Post by mark-r »

To be honest, I thought they were already completely gone. The article mentions them filing for bankruptcy in 2012.

They were pretty much doomed from the start. They had built their business by taking a cut from every picture you took, from the rolls of film to the developing to the printing. There was absolutely nothing in the digital camera realm that could duplicate that; their revenue dropped like a rock. If they had sold every single digital camera ever bought, it wouldn't have made up for it.

The contrast between Kodak and Fujifilm is fascinating. Fujifilm survived by pivoting to manufacturing critical components for LCD panels, which were exploding in popularity at the time. https://web.archive.org/web/20250704224940/https://petapixel...

Re: Kodak says it might have to cease operations [updated]

#185

Post by dougdonohoe »

mark-r wrote: post #184

To be honest, I thought they were already completely gone. The article mentions them filing for bankruptcy in 2012. They were pretty much doomed from the start. They had built their business by taking a cut from every picture you took, from the rolls of film to the developing to the printing. There was absolutely nothing in the digital camera realm that could duplicate that; their revenue dropped like a rock. If they…

"Doomed from the start" for a 133 year old company seems a bit hyperbolic. They have lasted 13 decades and counting. How many other company started in the 1890s are still around today?

Re: Kodak says it might have to cease operations [updated]

#186

Post by coldpie »

bawolff wrote: post #161
cloudbonsai wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

> - 2010s: Kodak tried to become a Blockchain company, issuing KodakCoin. It was a flop. Its hard not to laugh at that. At least the pivots before that point kind of made sense. I guess 2010 came along and the executives just decided to yolo.

I do not miss the zero-interest-rate days and I hope they never return.

Re: Kodak says it might have to cease operations [updated]

#188

Post by FMecha »

nixass wrote: post #149
cloudbonsai wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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

Might as well mention generative AI as well.

Re: Kodak says it might have to cease operations [updated]

#189

Post by brianwawok »

coldpie wrote: post #186
bawolff wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> - 2010s: Kodak tried to become a Blockchain company, issuing KodakCoin. It was a flop. Its hard not to laugh at that. At least the pivots before that point kind of made sense. I guess 2010 came along and the executives just decided to yolo.

I do not miss the zero-interest-rate days and I hope they never return.

I loved my $4 Lyft across town. Was happy to spend VC money...

Re: Kodak says it might have to cease operations [updated]

#190

Post by woofcat »

dougdonohoe wrote: post #185
mark-r wrote: post #184

To be honest, I thought they were already completely gone. The article mentions them filing for bankruptcy in 2012. They were pretty much doomed from the start. They had built their business by taking a cut from every picture you took, from the rolls of film to the developing to the printing. There was absolutely nothing in the digital camera realm that could duplicate that; their revenue dropped like a rock. If they…

"Doomed from the start" for a 133 year old company seems a bit hyperbolic. They have lasted 13 decades and counting. How many other company started in the 1890s are still around today?

I'm presuming they were trying to say "Doomed from the start of the digital revolution"
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