BUSINESS: Kodak to layoff quarter of it's workforce

The digital camera age has taken it's toll on the old film manufacturer's. Since the beginning of digital photography, as more people begin to use digital formats, profits have eroded to the point of total demise of the film industry. After announcing the end of the product line last week, loadable 35mm film camera's, it is obvious now that the industry is considered dead by the industry giants that used film to propel them to the Fortune 500.

CBS News

(CBS/AP) Eastman Kodak Co., struggling to find its footing in new digital photography markets as its signature film business fades, said Thursday it will cut 12,000 to 15,000 jobs, or up to 24 percent of its global work force, over the next three years. The Rochester, N.Y company expects to cut total facility square footage by about one-third as it shutters some manufacturing sites, reports CBS MarketWatch. The announcement also came as the world's biggest photography company posted a fourth-quarter profit of $19 million, or 7 cents a share, down sharply from $113 million, or 39 cents a share, a year ago.

Obviously this is only a sign of progress, as went the wagon wheel maker's of old. But this is also a company that represented American ingenuity and capitalism at it's best.

Photography has been since inception, a trusted method of documenting events, family, references in history, wildlife, and everything worthy of archiving onto paper for keeping for future generations.

With Kodak planning to downsize, they are also taking a charge-off of almost 4 billion dollars over the next two years. This will immediatly effect the shareholder's that are still sitting on their investments.

If Kodak cannot re-invent itself as a whole, we may be witnessing the slow agonizing death of a company with an amazing history.





[Edited on 23-1-2004 by SkepticOverlord]

Very sad. However Kodak has to adapt with the changing times or go out of business. Its a digital age and fewer and fewer people are using film as opposed to digital cams w/ chips. My wife and I switched to digital this year and take 3 or 4 120 ram chips for unlimited shots and short video clips. Its a brave new world baby!

This seems to be a typical "form-following-market-conditions", that reminds me of the RJR collapse. In two years RJR revenue's dropped fast, as they struggled to "spin-off" and "back-out" to keep profits visable to shareholder's, and ultimatly being absorbed in a merger with a company with more stable bookings.

[Edited on 22-1-2004 by smirkley]

An interesting statement, pulled from another thread, suggests the gravity of the change from film to digital....

But the Australian UFO Research Network Victorian director George Simpson said a digital photograph was not considered acceptable evidence of a flying saucer.


I began to wonder about how many other organizations that consider digital images to be a less trustworthy medium.

If film were to go the wayside completely, there may be no other methods to generate 'reliable' images.

A picture is worth a thousand words,...but digital pictures might be worth 1001.

[Edited on 23-1-2004 by smirkley]

Old news from wayback, but it looks like the hemorrhage continues.

Just to update with current status,..

After posting a loss of $142,000,000 for the first quarter of this year, equating to a 50 cent loss per share and well below Wall Street forecasts, the stock is down 9 percent friday and Kodak's credit rating has been assigned 'junk' status.

Someone get a camera, they may not be around much longer to see.

From some one that was an innovator and market leader this is sad.

I had a Kodak 'instant' that was cheaper and better than Polaroid. Kodak got sued and lost.

Fuji has beat them up for years.

Now they lag in digital