While the writing has been on the wall for quite sometime now, Kodak finally filed for bankruptcy protection under Chapter 11, yesterday, 19 January 2012. Currently the company has secured financing for $950 million from CitiGroup, which will keep them afloat during the bankruptcy proceedings. Although the state of affairs today seemed inevitable going by the company’s recent past and was expected by many in the imaging industry, it has come as a shock for consumers and individuals outside the photography space.
Kodak has tried a number of strategies to turnaround its looming business in the past few years, but has failed miserably with its sales reducing by 50% since 2005. It is widely believed that it’s Kodak’s slow transition in adopting digital technology that is to be blamed for the American Giant’s fate along with unprecedented surge in sales of handheld devices. The two factors together lead to the demise of industry’s seasoned stalwart.
It is common knowledge that film business has been declining for most part of this decade. It was originally projected that film business would decline at about 10% year-on-year. Kodak had projected an estimate of 20% every year. But in reality the decline in this market, annually, has been 40%.