Kodak Finally Files for Bankruptcy

And yet another classic American brand prepares to bite the dust. Kodak, which has been on the verge of nonexistance ever since digital cameras became commodoties, has finally filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

Note that this doesn’t mean that Kodak will vanish; likely, the company will be reformed and will suffer a longer decline into oblivion. CEO Antonio Perez was even quoted as saying that he hopes the company will "emerge a lean, world-class, digital imaging and materials science company," which considering that tehy were a world-class digital imaging and materials science company before the filing doesn’t seem likely.

The company has managed to get the money it needed to survive bankruptcy proceedings, some $950 million, so the company will survive to fight another day. But the money came as debtor-in-posession financing, which is hardly the best thing for a company whose major asset, at this moment, is its patent portfolio. But the company plans on making the most out of that portfolio, with Perez talking about "monetizing non-core IP assets," so you should expect that the company will be starting quite a few lawsuits shortly.

Kodak lived a long and distinguished life right up until the moment digital cameras became commodities. Its conservative leadership didn’t imagine that digital cameras would grow in popularity as fast as they would, or that consumers would quickly grow to care only about the price.

In the end, the company, which had long dominated cameras and film, didn’t have a market or any product to sell. It shut down the manufacture of its iconic film, began licensing its brand out to the highest bidder, and generally did everything in its power to make its brand meaningless.

No matter how the company does manage to emerge from this bankruptcy, it won’t be the same company that it was before, the company that at one point had more than 90% of the film market in the United States. RIP, Kodak.

Engadget Photo by : DragonFlyEye