The end is here for Kodak/’Kodakan’ era

The 131-year old Eastman Kodak filed for bankruptcy last Thursday, January 19, marking the end of an era for the legendary American company and for generations of Filipinos who grew up with the phrase “Kodakan tayo” to indicate a photo-taking session.

One of Kodak’s biggest problems was that it held stubbornly to its legacy film businesses and waited too long to embrace digital technology. The company has finally come around, and it wants to continue that digital push. It has begun closing manufacturing plants and film processing labs, finally saying goodbye to the traditional operations that were no longer profitable.

Kodak stocks have been delisted from the New York Stock Exchange, as its shares fell in over-the-counter trading Thursday.

The company had been trying to sell its big collection of digital-imaging patents in order to raise funds to stave off bankruptcy.  Apparently, the expected sales didn’t materialize.

Kodak will now reorganize its business in hopes of bolstering its liquidity and settling some longstanding liabilities. The company wants to focus on its most valuable business lines and expects to complete the restructuring in 2013. About 75% of its revenue last year was from its digital businesses.

Kodak says it has enough money to keep operating during the bankruptcy and emphasizes that it will continue offering products and services. Employees will still be paid.

Kodak  was founded by  George Eastman, a high school dropout who worked to help his struggling family, became absorbed in photography in the late 19th century. He experimented with gelatin emulsions for three years, inventing a formula for dry-plate photography and a machine that could prepare large numbers of plates.

Eastman set out to make photography easy for everyday users. He devised new coatings for photography paper. He came up with ways to roll paper film in a holder. He coined the name Kodak and trademarked it in 1888.

The innovations continued. The debut of Kodachrome film in 1935 changed the industry. By 1988, the company employed nearly 150,000 people. Kodak became an industrial giant, and its stock was a reliable winner for decades.

In the Philippines, Kodak cameras and films were so popular that for decades, Filipinos would say “Kodakan tayo” when they meant “Let’s have our pictures taken.”

Photo:  George Eastman and Thomas Edison from the “Illustrated History of Copyrights”

Adapted from:  Kodak files for bankruptcy at msn.money