NEW YORK, Sept 4 — A slimmed-down Kodak announced yesterday that it had emerged from bankruptcy protection and would specialise in technology focused on imaging for businesses.
Kodak, during the 20-month bankruptcy reorganisation, divested many of its most iconic businesses, including its retail film products, its photography paper products and some 105,000 kiosks worldwide.
The assets went to the UK Kodak Pension Plan, its largest creditor.
“We have emerged as a technology company serving imaging for business markets — including packaging, functional printing, graphic communications and professional services,” said Kodak chief executive Antonio Perez in a statement.
“We are setting a trajectory for profitable growth,” Perez said. “We have the right technology at the right time as printing markets increasingly transition to digital.”
A New York bankruptcy court had approved Kodak’s reorganisation plan on August 20, but the company said at the time it still had some final steps before exiting Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
Kodak said yesterday it had completed the spinoff of assets to the UK Kodak Pension Plan, closed an agreement for US$695 million (RM2.3 billion) in financing and obtained US$406 million in new equity investments from unsecured creditors.
Kodak filed for bankruptcy protection from its creditors in January 2012, after 131 years in business, as the company fell behind rivals in digital photography.
The Rochester, New York-based company, started in 1892, led the way in popularising the cameras, film, slide projectors and home videos that preserved the memories of generations of Americans and others around the world.
Kodak was among the early developers of digital imaging, but lost ground to rivals as the company failed to adapt its business lines. — AFP
