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Kodak says it might have to cease operations [updated]

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

#91

Post by [deleted] »

glimshe wrote: post #89
alephnerd wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I lived in one of these cities. I don't even understand what you're arguing against. The US has highly automated manufacturing because that's what makes sense with the current incentives. Other parts of the world still have factory cities. The US can align incentives to encourage different types of manufacturing of if it wants. I didn't say anything about whether it's a good idea.

[deleted]

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

#92

Post by fallinditch »

Scene_Cast2 wrote: post #86

That's pretty sad. I find their color film resolves better than Ilford's B&W stuff (I know it's apples to oranges, but if I'm shooting B&W, I kind of want the detail...). Their film is also generally easier to find than Provia or Velvia, for medium format at least.

Yes, very sad - I really hope they carry on making camera films.

This is what we would lose:

https://thedarkroom.com/film-brand/kodak

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

#94

Post by alephnerd »

glimshe wrote: post #89
alephnerd wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I lived in one of these cities. I don't even understand what you're arguing against. The US has highly automated manufacturing because that's what makes sense with the current incentives. Other parts of the world still have factory cities. The US can align incentives to encourage different types of manufacturing of if it wants. I didn't say anything about whether it's a good idea.

> Other parts of the world still have factory cities

I mean, factory cities in other countries are also increasingly being automated as well.

Look at what happened to Wolfsburg in Germany as well as the investments in robotic and additive manufacturing in China leading to around 20 million factory jobs being shed from 2013 to 2023 [0]. If an Indian auto manufacturers like Maruti Suzuki themselves had a 1 robot for 4 employee ratio by 2017 [1] in a country where labor (skilled and unskilled) is cheap, it shows where the tide is turning globally for factory cities.

Globally, manufacturing (especially in electronics, chemicals, pharma, automotive, and aerospace) has become much more automated because the cost barriers for automation have fallen significantly. For example, a robotic arm like that which Kuka or FANUC manufactures costs around $30-40k to install, whereas 30 years ago an industrial robot would have costed around $65-115k in 2003 dollars [2]

The era of single factory cities is coming to a close globally. Industries are overwhelmingly clustering in hubs in order to take full advantage of supply chains and vendor ecosystems.

[0] - https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2025/06/10/f...

[1] - https://www.livemint.com/Companies/0qexlea1C0MelXiAXcveOJ/Ro...

[2] - https://unece.org/sites/default/files/datastore/fileadmin/DA...

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

#95

Post by YZF »

tombert wrote: post #68

Wait, Kodak is still around? I'm not trying to be a dick or shitpost, but I genuinely thought they collapsed after I heard nothing about KodakCoin after the initial announcement.

They went bankrupt in 2012 but came out of their banruptcy. This is the second time they're collapsing. Not really related to their coin I don't think.

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

#96

Post by alephnerd »

abullinan wrote: post #88
alephnerd wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I was a Folsom resident for 15 years. If you’re referring to physical goods, Folsom didn’t produce any. Perhaps you thought Intel site there was a fab? (FYI: Folsom was a small post-goldrush dwindling mining town that turned into a suburban hellhole thanks to Intel: The same strip malls on every block and beige-box sprawl as far as the eye could see. It’s a great example of how rapid scaling culturally starves humans…

What I mean is Folsom is a city where research into a physical engineering field continues, and primarily for a single employer (Intel), though that remains to be seen with the current rightsizing going on.

> The same strip malls on every block and beige-box sprawl as far as the eye could see

Plenty of industrial cities are similar. And as I mentioned in the previous response, manufacturing is much more automated and skilled today - it's increasingly a white collar job in nature.

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

#97

Post by jspann »

Maybe 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 August 15th

2) They not only mention opening a new business segment, but built a lab AND got FDA approval for that segment (Advanced Materials & Chemicals)

3) The sale of the pension is going to have so much of a surplus they're going to pay down parts of the long debt that they have.

I'd love to be corrected if I'm misreading this, but the reports of Kodak's death seem greatly exaggerated

[1]: https://investor.kodak.com/news-releases/news-release-detail...

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

#99

Post by camdroidw »

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.

Another way to put it: people with lopsided unwholesome lifestyle but genius minds trying to get rich but not realising that money alone isn't what makes life, life.

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

#100

Post by joegibbs »

squigz wrote: post #17
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.

I don't deny wealth disparity is very much a thing, but this doesn't seem the point to make it. How many people does Google employ? Amazon? Apple? Probably as much or more than a small town.

Amazon has 1.5m, it's more on the level of a small country. Google is only at 180k, just small city level.
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