Kodak to launch new pharmaceuticals business using $765 million federal loan

WASHINGTON -- Erstwhile photo giant Eastman Kodak will launch a new business manufacturing pharmaceuticals amid the coronavirus pandemic, using a $765 million government loan, the company announced Tuesday.

The loan from the US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) will fund the creation of Kodak Pharmaceuticals, which "will produce critical pharmaceutical components that have been identified as essential but have lapsed into chronic national shortage," the agency said in a statement.

The firm, which signed a "letter of interest" with the DFC on Tuesday, will produce "up to 25 percent of active pharmaceutical ingredients used in non-biologic, non-antibacterial, generic pharmaceuticals." 

Kodak, once a giant in the world of photography whose business has struggled in recent years as cell phones have replaced cameras and film, will expand its existing facilities in Rochester, New York and St. Paul, Minnesota.

The company said the new pharmaceutical business will support 360 direct jobs and 1,200 indirectly. 

"By leveraging our vast infrastructure, deep expertise in chemicals manufacturing and heritage of innovation and quality, Kodak will play a critical role in the return of a reliable American pharmaceutical supply chain," the company's Executive Chairman Jim Continenza said in the statement.

The DFC loan is the first to be made after President Donald Trump in May signed an executive order aimed at encouraging domestic production of materials needed to fight COVID-19.

While Americans consume about 40 percent of the components used to make generic pharmaceuticals worldwide, only about 10 percent of those are made in the country's borders, the DFC said.

"We are pleased to support Kodak in this bold new venture," DFC Chief Executive Adam Boehler said. "Our collaboration with this iconic American company will promote health and safety at home and around the world."

Agence France-Presse

Tech nostalgia on show with instant cameras, turntables

BERLIN -- For many consumers, rewinding cassettes, carefully placing a needle on a record or shaking dry a Polaroid photo may all feel like long-forgotten gestures from a bygone era. 

But they're everywhere to be seen again at Berlin's IFA tech show, albeit it with an unmistakable digital touch. 

The "new trends" section of the fair, which often showcases upcoming Christmas-season blockbusters, is dominated by a stand belonging to Polaroid, the household-name camera firm that not so long ago appeared near death.

Known as the One Step+, the snapper looks exactly like a traditional Polaroid from the outside -- but offers Bluetooth connectivity to sync up with Android and iPhone apps.

Competitor Kodak also has an instant camera, the Printomatic, on offer, claiming less than 40 seconds to develop a photo in color or black-and-white.

"For the new generation, it's totally new. They have no idea how to take a picture like this, without a screen, or to wait a week for it to get developed", said Polaroid spokesman Tobias Henze.

Unlike digital photos trapped under smartphone glass, "you can frame it, put it on the wall, offer it or put it in a scrapbook," he points out.

AUDIOSTALGIA

In the music world, audio purists and those looking for a more "instagrammable" way to listen are met with ever more options for playing cassettes and vinyl records.

Manufacturers have hard data to back up their turn to the past, with 33 RPM discs accounting for some 14 percent of US album sales in 2017, compared with 11 percent the previous year.

That's why IFA visitors can lust after Yamaha's Vinyl 500 turntable, which nods to modernity with a Wifi connection that also allows users to stream music.

Meanwhile, a slew of startups offer portable turntables that can be lugged around in a satchel or even clipped onto the edge of a speaker or a shelf.

For those with enormous digital collections, Sony vaunts the ability of its DMP-Z1 player -- priced at $13,000 -- to restore the sound quality and audio "grain" of a vinyl pressing.

Debate may rage forever in the audiophile world about whether the traditional discs truly offer superior sound.

But the trend towards the black record is firmly established across Europe, with small-scale publishers popping up in disused factory buildings across the continent.

Outside the air-conditioned halls of the IFA, hip young Berliners are spoiled for choice among shops offering vinyls and cassettes.

"Old formats, in audio, video, photo negatives or records have a very large user base, almost 50 percent of the market," says Klaus Boehm, of consultancy Deloitte.

"Our multimedia use will coexist in the coming years with these older formats, and I'd advise people not to throw away their old devices," he cautioned.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Oscars no longer 'live from the Kodak Theater'

LOS ANGELES -- Bankrupt Eastman Kodak Co is having its named yanked from Sunday's telecast of the Oscars, the president of the group that gives out the awards said on Wednesday.

"It will be live from the Hollywood and Highland Center in Hollywood, California. That's what the landlord has asked us to do and we're going to do it," said Tom Sherak, president of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, in an interview with a Los Angeles television station.

The announcement comes after much speculation as to whether the once-dominant film manufacturing and photography company would keep its name on the Oscar theater after filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization earlier this year.

Kodak signed a $74 million deal in 2000 for naming rights the 3,400-seat theater in Hollywood that is home to the Academy Awards and also houses a production of Cirque du Soleil.

The Oscar deal was an enormous marketing opportunity for Kodak's brand because the Academy Awards annually is the second most-watched event on TV behind football's Super Bowl. Last year's telecast was viewed by 37.6 million people.

But under bankruptcy law, the company was able to reject the remainder of its 20-year commitment, and sought to have its name removed from the theater immediately.

The building's owner, CIM Group, objected initially saying it was unfair for Kodak to remove its sign before the Oscars.

The CIM Group declined to comment Wednesday on the Academy's decision to not include the Kodak name in this year's awards.

source: interaksyon.com

Apple seeks court permission to sue Kodak

NEW YORK — Apple Inc has asked a bankruptcy court for permission to sue Eastman Kodak, accusing it of infringing its patents.

In a court filing on Tuesday in New York federal bankruptcy court, Apple said it wanted to file a complaint against Kodak at the International Trade Commission.

Apple said the suit would seek to bar Kodak from importing various products, such as printers and digital cameras, that it believes infringes its patents.

Apple said it also wants to file a corresponding lawsuit in the Manhattan federal court, which would seek damages it has suffered since the iconic photography company filed for bankruptcy last month.

The litigation would not be the first legal battle between the two companies. In January, Kodak sued Apple for allegedly infringing its patents related to digital cameras.

The once-dominant photography company filed for bankruptcy protection last month.

source: interaksyon.com

Kodak edges toward bankruptcy

NEW YORK — Eastman Kodak, the company which brought photography to the masses a century ago, faces a gloomy future amid new reports that it is on the edge of bankruptcy.

Never able to rebuild after the digital wave blew its core film business away from the mass market, the Wall Street Journal reported late Wednesday that Kodak has already begun preparing to ask for protection from creditors.

On Tuesday, the New York Stock Exchange told the company, once one of the fabled 30 Dow Jones blue chips, that it faces delisting from the exchange if it cannot get its stock price back above $1.00 level.

In its heyday, Kodak shares topped $80 in 1996 — just at the outset of the digital photo revolution that eventually replaced the need for consumers to buy Kodak film, once a virtual monopoly in the US market.

On Wednesday its share price plunged 28 percent to 47 cents a share; Thursday it sank another 10.6 percent to 42 cents as Moody's downgraded the company's debt rating to a very low Caa3, citing "a heightened probability of a bankruptcy over the near term."

And on Thursday the company's chief communications officer quit, following in the wake of three board directors in the past two weeks.

The Wall Street Journal said the company is still hoping that it can sell off some of its valuable patent portfolio to raise money.

But if that last-ditch effort fails, it could file for bankruptcy under Chapter 11 protection, later this month or in February, the Journal said citing sources familiar with the issue.

That would place the jobs of its 19,000 employees in question. At its height in the 1980s, it had 145,000 workers.

Kodak declined to comment on the reports, but its books have been awash with red ink for years. The last time it reported a net profit was the small gain in 2007. Its steady decline was already marked when it was dropped from the prestigious Dow Jones Industrial Average of 30 top US companies in 2004.

Founded in 1892 by inventor George Eastman, Kodak developed handheld "Brownie" cameras that were sold at popular prices, and furnished the film that would keep consumers pumping profits into the country for decades.

Three generations of Americans and many in other countries learned to snap photos with Brownies.

And "Kodak Moment", the company's advertising catchphrase for its film, was embedded deep into the vernacular.

The company meanwhile was lauded as one of the country's top technology innovators —the Apple or Google of its time.

Ironically, it pioneered research into digital photography beginning in the mid-1970s. But it was Asian electronics manufacturers that stole a march in that market in the 1990s as Kodak failed to see the need to break from its old business lines.

"They were the ones who invented the digital camera, but they didn't believe in it," said Gregori Volokhine of Meeschaert Capital Markets.

In September, Kodak hired the law firm Jones Day as advisors for restructuring, though many analysts noted that the firm also advises bankruptcies.

Kodak though sought to shore up its finances by selling often some of its huge portfolio of patents, including in digital imaging.

That could bring substantial cash and buy time, though Moody's said the threat of bankruptcy will make such sales more difficult.

"But when one is a desperate seller, the buyers have no interest in rushing because it will be cheaper when Kodak is completely on the floor," said Volokhine.

"The problem with a bankruptcy is that it does nothing to increase the value of Kodak's patents," said Douglas McIntyre of 247WallSt.com.

"If they have a very large value, Kodak would have gotten that already. It has had months to complete a process to use its intellectual property to bolster its balance sheet. That has not happened." — Agence France-Presse

source:gmanetwork.com