14 DAY TRIAL // People may or may not have heard about all the trouble Kodak has been dealing with. The company filed for bankruptcy and had to let go of its image sensor business. It even backed out of the camera market altogether, even though it used to be a legend.
As if all that wasn't enough, the corporation ended up losing its slide film business too, due to a sheer lack of demand.
The only ray of sunshine in all this is that Kodak managed to get the 950 million in funding that it wanted (718 million Euro).
It is for this reason that it managed to show improved segment profitability and reduced operating costs in the first quarter of 2012.
“During the quarter, we took decisive steps – including filing for Chapter 11 and exiting unprofitable businesses – to accelerate our transformation and emerge in 2013 as a profitable, sustainable business,” said Antonio M. Perez, chairman and chief executive officer.
“As a result, during the quarter we saw improved profitability of our Commercial and Consumer business segments. We will continue to exploit our competitive advantage at the intersection of materials science, digital imaging, and deposition technologies. Our commercial and consumer products and services continue to offer unique technologies and market-leading value propositions.”
The total revenue was of $965 million (729 million Euro), which was still a drop of 27% compared to the first quarter of 2011. It's still better than nothing though.
“As demonstrated by our performance in the first quarter, Kodak’s reorganization is proceeding according to plan. As we move forward, we are continuing to make progress in realizing each of these fundamental objectives in our Chapter 11 filing,” Perez said.
“Kodak is focusing on its opportunities, reducing costs, and fine-tuning the balance between liquidity and growth to enable the enterprise to emerge from its Chapter 11 restructuring in 2013 as a leaner, stronger, and sustainable business.”