Kodak entering the EV battery market; insiders betting big
History
Kodak is one of those ancient companies that literally goes back to the days of Thomas Edison. It was founded by George Eastman and Henry Strong in 1892, and eventually became a near monopoly in the photographic film industry. They adopted the razor-and-blades/printer-and-ink business model. They’d sell a camera for a relatively low price, then make their money selling the film. For almost a hundred years they made serious tendies doing it.
Then digital cameras became a thing, spelling Kodak’s imminent demise. Ironically, Kodak was actually the first to develop a digital camera, but the smooth brain executives pushed back against it. The rest was history. Kodak sales declined year over year, ultimately sending the company into bankruptcy in 2012.
Bankruptcies are always messy, but Kodak was actually able to navigate it pretty well. It certainly helped that they owned all kinds of random assets that they were able to sell off in partial fulfillment of debtors’ claims. What kind of assets? Well, obviously they had some IP, and a lot of it had nothing to do with their core competencies, so that was easy to sell, and that sale in fact brought in over $500 million. They also owned a coal-fired power plant, a lease on a Times Square billboard, and all other kinds of random crap they were able to sell off. All told, they were able to exit bankruptcy relatively unscathed. Following the bankruptcy, Kodak tried to rebrand itself for the modern era. For example, in 2017, they developed a smartphone , which was obviously a total failure. It became time for them to move on.
After replacing most of the executive leadership in 2019, Kodak pivoted their focus to what they know best: photography-related businesses (film and printing), and chemicals (an industry that goes hand-in-hand with the film business). Now, although Kodak still sells its old-fashioned film to consumers, it is now primarily a business-to-business company, with two main divisions: commercial printing and advanced materials and chemicals.
^ Kodak will be using the $765 million to begin producing components for generic drugs—specifically, active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs), the chemicals that make a drug work.
They manufacture the 4 major components for all pharmaceutical drugs...
History
Kodak is one of those ancient companies that literally goes back to the days of Thomas Edison. It was founded by George Eastman and Henry Strong in 1892, and eventually became a near monopoly in the photographic film industry. They adopted the razor-and-blades/printer-and-ink business model. They’d sell a camera for a relatively low price, then make their money selling the film. For almost a hundred years they made serious tendies doing it.
Then digital cameras became a thing, spelling Kodak’s imminent demise. Ironically, Kodak was actually the first to develop a digital camera, but the smooth brain executives pushed back against it. The rest was history. Kodak sales declined year over year, ultimately sending the company into bankruptcy in 2012.
Bankruptcies are always messy, but Kodak was actually able to navigate it pretty well. It certainly helped that they owned all kinds of random assets that they were able to sell off in partial fulfillment of debtors’ claims. What kind of assets? Well, obviously they had some IP, and a lot of it had nothing to do with their core competencies, so that was easy to sell, and that sale in fact brought in over $500 million. They also owned a coal-fired power plant, a lease on a Times Square billboard, and all other kinds of random crap they were able to sell off. All told, they were able to exit bankruptcy relatively unscathed. Following the bankruptcy, Kodak tried to rebrand itself for the modern era. For example, in 2017, they developed a smartphone , which was obviously a total failure. It became time for them to move on.
After replacing most of the executive leadership in 2019, Kodak pivoted their focus to what they know best: photography-related businesses (film and printing), and chemicals (an industry that goes hand-in-hand with the film business). Now, although Kodak still sells its old-fashioned film to consumers, it is now primarily a business-to-business company, with two main divisions: commercial printing and advanced materials and chemicals.
^ Kodak will be using the $765 million to begin producing components for generic drugs—specifically, active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs), the chemicals that make a drug work.
They manufacture the 4 major components for all pharmaceutical drugs...