Eastman Kodak's Commercial Imaging segments recorded significant improvements in segment earnings. “These results demonstrate that we are on track with our strategy to focus on Commercial Imaging, and that we are making operational improvements as Kodak takes the right steps to emerge as a profitable and sustainable company,” said Antonio M. Perez, chairman and CEO.
Under a new settlement agreement, which will be filed with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Kodak’s Personalized Imaging and Document Imaging businesses will be spun off under new ownership to U.K. Kodak Pension Plan (KPP).
Eastman Kodak and Brother Industries, have reached an agreement for the proposed sale of certain assets of Kodak's Document Imaging business for a cash purchase price of approximately $210 million, subject to certain price adjustments at closing. Under the terms of the agreement, Kodak will seek U.S. Bankruptcy Court approval of the bidding procedures at a hearing in late April and is targeting final court approval of a transaction in June.
For February 2013, Kodak had a gross profit of $12.2 million—roughly what it made in January and the fifth time in the past six months that the company was in the black. Gross profits don’t count various expenses like R&D, administration, or interest paid on debt.
The company, which employs about 3,500 locally, has repeatedly indicated it hopes to emerge from bankruptcy by middle of this year. It is in the midst of selling such lines of business as its photographic film and paper and document scanner operations, with its business plan after bankruptcy revolving around equipment, supplies and services.
Kodak on Monday put out its financial results for 2012 overall. And the numbers were generally lousy, chief among them a net loss of almost $1.4 billion for the year. But minus the slightly more than $1 billion the company spent last year on restructuring and on all the costs associated with bankruptcy, such as vast fortunes spent on various attorneys and consultants, and Kodak lost $308 million last year—hundreds of millions less than it did in 2011 or 2010.
Overall for the year, Kodak had sales of $4.1 billion, down significantly from 2011’s $5.2 billion or 2010’s $6 billion.
Commercial Printing Industry News Briefs from Printing Impressions’ March 2013 edition, including items on Vertis Communications; EPS-Doublet and Think BIG Solutions; Royal Printing and Modern Printing; Classic Graphics; The John Roberts Co.; the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) and Valassis Direct Mail; Impressions Plus Printing and Copying; and Eastman Kodak.
Okay, so the news is certainly encouraging on the photo merchandise front looking out over the next few years. The overall market in the U.S. is estimated to grow from around 113 million units reported in 2012 to nearly 158 million units by 2017, so says David Haueter, Associate Director for InfoTrends' Photo Merchandise Trends…
Kodak gave Caroline Tucker, Rochesterhomepage.net, a sneak peek at what the new company will look like beyond the cloud of bankruptcy. "This goes in as a roll, gets cut into a sheet, and the end roll gets cut into a book," showed Chris Payne, director and vice president marketing commercial business.
Chris Payne's job at Kodak is to market the company's commercial business. It's the next chapter of a company emerging from bankruptcy.
A growing number of companies in the commercial printing world are dialing down their use of trade shows as part of their marketing efforts. “We’re in a world of information,” said Jon Levine, Xerox vice president of global experiential marketing. “The customer has all the control right now. What were trying to do is build advocates for our brand. The idea is, we have to reach our customers in different ways. The efficient way to do that might not be trade shows.”
ROCHESTER, NY—Eastman Kodak has completed a transaction for the sale and licensing of its digital imaging patents for net proceeds of $527 million. The transaction, which achieves one of Kodak’s key restructuring objectives, follows other recent developments that included final court approval last week for the company’s interim and exit financing.
