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| | Eastman Kodak Company (NYSE: EK) is an American company, a world famous manufacturer of photographic, equipment and movie materials. Headquarters - Rochester, State of New York (USA).
Proprietors:
All shares of the company were floated.
As on January 2011, the following were the major shareholders:
* Legg Mason Capital Management (21.6 %);
* Vanguard Group (5.5 %);
* BlackRock Institutional Trust Company (5.1 %);
Management:
Key figures in the company's management are:
Chairperson of board of directors and General Director - Antonio M. Perez.
Company President - Philip J. Faraci.
Company is founded in 1881 by innovator George Eastman & businessman Henry Strong.
Kodak History:
In 1879, bank employee George Eastman invented the machine for applying photo emulsion on plates. The patent for the machine for the mass production of photographic plates was issued in England. In 1881, Henry Strong, an industrialist from Rochester founded the company "Eastman Dry Plate Company". In 1884, Eastman & Strong converted their company into a corporation. In 1885, a roll film "American Film" was sold to the public. Eastman hired Henry H. Reichenbach, a chemist, for continuing the research work and in 1889, the corporation started manufacturing photographic films.
The aim of Eastman was to popularize photography. The first Kodak camera appeared in 1888, which was loaded with film for 100 photos. The camera, loaded with film was sold for 25 dollars. On September 4, 1888, George Eastman registered the Kodak trade mark. Sales of the camera, loaded with 48 photo fill roll, were started in 1890. After a long advertising campaign by the Kodak brand, the company's name was changed to "Eastman Kodak Co" in 1892. In 1900, Eastman succeeded in achieving the goal – the new camera Brownie with a film roll for 6 photos was sold for 1 dollar. The film roll was sold for 15 cents. Brownie cameras were sold till 1970.
In the beginning of the 20th century, the Eastman Kodak company manufactured considerable models of cameras for various types of film rolls. Eastman Kodak had its stores in many countries around the world. Some of these foreign stores manufactured their own camera models. For example, German Kodak AG manufactured the camera "Retina". Eastman Kodak had its branches & factories in Canada, Mexico, Great Britain, France, Germany, Australia, Argentina, Brazil and Spain.
On July 18, 1930, shares of the Eastman Kodak company were incorporated in the composition of the Dow Jones Industrial Average index.
In 1936, the company created it's first colour photographic film of type 135.
The company manufactured everything which is associated with photography: cameras, Kodak lenses, film rolls, chemical agents and other products, connected with photo processing, for example, printers. In 1966, around 100,000 employees worked for the company.
Cameras for the film type 126 (size of photo 26 х 26 mm) were the most popular product of Eastman Kodak. The manufacture of these cameras was started in 1963. By 1976, the company had sold 60 million Instamatic cameras. Kodak broke its own record: from 1957 to 1962, it sold 10 million "Brownie" brand cameras. The manufacture of tiny cameras for the 110 type of film roll was started in 1972.
In 1976, Steven Sasson, an engineer of the company, developed the first digital camera with a 0.1 Mp matrix size. Eastman Kodak delayed the manufacture of digital cameras and as a result of which, lost considerable market share.
On April 8, 2004, shares of Eastman Kodak were withdrawn from Dow Jones Industrial Average index.
In 2006, the company stopped production of digital cameras – the production was handed over to the company "Flextronics" (Singapore).
On June 22, 2009, the company stopped production of the popular film roll "Kodachrome".
On December 7, 2009, the company declared the forthcoming sale of all shares of Eastman Kodak, connected with OLED manufacture, to the LG group of companies. Nevertheless, in the future, Kodak will have access to this technology and will use it in its products.
On January 18, 2012, the company had approached the court announcing bankruptcy, requesting the authorities to protect the corporation from creditors. Kodak had accumulated a 6.8 billion dollar debt at total amount of assets standing at 5.1 billion dollars. |
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It looks like the end of an era for the company that shaped more than a few generations - Kodak is filing for bankruptcy. The 120-year-old firm has become a victim in recent years of slowing demand for traditional film amidst the rapid growth in digital imaging technology in products such as cameras, printers and more recently mobile phones. For years, Kodak asked its customers to submit photos to its monthly Kodak Moment contest. A Kodak Moment is a rare, one-time moment captured with a photo, or should have been captured by a photo.
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