Kodak Bankruptcy Plan Gets Judge’s Approval


Eastman Kodak Co.’s bankruptcy plan was approved by a judge on Tuesday, allowing the once-mighty photography pioneer to emerge from bankruptcy.

But the once massive company will instead emerge as a much smaller digital-imaging company in about two weeks with US Bankruptcy Judge Allan Gropper’s approval.

The company was once a name synonymous with household cameras and family photos. But, as Reuters reports, that recognition now goes to companies like Nikon and Canon.

Kodak filed for bankruptcy in January 2012, claiming to be $6.75 billion in debt from things like high pension costs and its delay in embracing the technology of digital cameras.

The delay cost the company everything. While it will keep its name, Kodak will have little else. The company will emerge from Chapter 11 with a main focus on commercial products like flexible packaging for consumer goods and high-speed digital printing technology.

ABC News notes that Kodak’s bankruptcy forced it to get rid of its camera-making business, many products and services, manufacturing facilities, supply contracts, investments, and scores of workers.

At the start of Tuesday’s hearing, Andrew Dietderich, an attorney for Kodak, commented of the company, “Kodak is a different company than the one in the popular imagination and very different from the one that filed for bankruptcy.”

But while its camera-making business is gone, Kodak stands a chance at making a name for itself in the commercial imaging industry. It has been developing an alternative composite that is key to using touch-screen display screens. However, it simply isn’t the same.

The emergence from Chapter 11 bankruptcy will be a new start for the company, which was originally founded in 1880 by George Eastman. In the mid-1990s, the company’s market value topped $31 billion. But it wasn’t so when it tried to sell its portfolio. Kodak ended up netting just $525 million from the sale.

Are you glad to hear Kodak will soon emerge from bankruptcy?

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