Kodak Emerges from Bankruptcy with Focus on Digital Imaging, Commercial Printing
Kodak自破產中再生,重新聚焦數位影像與商業印刷

Posted by Sheila Shayon on September 4, 2013 04:55 PM
指導者 / 總編輯 張蕙娟
分享者 / 游心筠

在去年11月宣告破產之後,Kodak重新以一個「小規模、B2B」的姿態現身,提供商業印刷及數位影像服務。而執行長Antonio Perez則敦促公司持續專注在一直以來結合材料科學、數位影像與精密科技的能力上。

不同於過去被定義為相機膠捲的主要品牌,Kodak如今也開始轉向數位科技領域如智慧型手機觸控螢幕、高速商用噴墨印表機等,預計今年收入可望達到27億美元。另一個和Kodak陷入相同困境的品牌Polaroid,在破產之後如今也重新在佛羅里達州開設第一家零售店,為顧客提供數位影像的處理服務。

After filing for bankruptcy in November of last year, Kodak has re-emerged as a much smaller, business-to-business focused company that will provide commerical printing and digital imaging services. While a far cry from its years in consumer products, CEO Antonio Perez urges that the company is "working at the same intersection of materials science, digital imaging and precision technologies that it had been for decades prior to the bankruptcy."

After increasing competition from overseas companies and emerging digital technology essentially killed Kodak's business, the company sold off what it could, including its signature camera film division to its UK retirees who had a $2.8 billion debt owed on their pension plan. It sold its roughly half-billion dollar patent portfolio in return for $844 million in financing and reduced billions of dollars of debt by issuing stock at a severely reduced rate to creditors.

“I’m very, very happy today,” Perez told the Wall Street Journal, saying the new company “comes with a great capital structure and with a great balance sheet.”

Founded by George Eastman in 1880, Kodak was the defining brand for cameras and film for close to a century. Today, the company has only a fraction of its former 145,000 employees at its peak in the 1980s, with about 8,500 today, but revenue is projected to hit $2.7 billion this year as the new Kodak pursues digital technologies including smartphone touchscreens, smart packaging embedded with sensors and super-fast commercial inkjet printers such as the Prosper Press. The personal imaging division that was sold earlier this year to the UK pension plan will now operate asKodak Alaris, with no noticeable change to its consumer-facing product and service offerings.

Founded by George Eastman in 1880, Kodak was the defining brand for cameras and film for close to a century. Today, the company has only a fraction of its former 145,000 employees at its peak in the 1980s, with about 8,500 today, but revenue is projected to hit $2.7 billion this year as the new Kodak pursues digital technologies including smartphone touchscreens, smart packaging embedded with sensors and super-fast commercial inkjet printers such as the Prosper Press. The personal imaging division that was sold earlier this year to the UK pension plan will now operate asKodak Alaris, with no noticeable change to its consumer-facing product and service offerings.

The Kodak company still has a long and unfamilar road ahead of it, but Perez is confident in the refreshed brand. “Look for a case of a company that had to go through this kind of excruciating restructuring and kept innovating. It just doesn’t happen, but we’ve done it.”


摘譯自BrandChannel:

http://www.brandchannel.com/home/post/2013/09/04/Kodak-Emerges-From-Bankruptcy-090413.aspx


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