Eastman Kodak has filed its latest plan to exit from Chapter 11 bankruptcy that gives ownership of the venerable company to unsecured creditors and bond holders. Second-lien note holders will receive 85 percent of common stock in the company, worth nearly $374.85 million. Unsecured creditors will be awarded the remaining 15 percent of shares.
A number of patents owned by Kodak have been transferred into Apple's name, according to recent filings at the US Patent and Trademark Office. The patents form part of Apple's haul from the photography firm, and covers a number of different camera-related actions, including the display and sharing of digital images, as well as sharing images over a network wirelessly.
Eastman Kodak has reached a preliminary agreement with Brother Industries for the sale of certain assets of its document image scanning business, for a cash purchase price of approximately $210 million. Kodak’s Document Imaging business provides a comprehensive portfolio of scanners, capture software and services to enterprise customers, and the resultant IP transfer and customer database supplements Brother's existing product lineup.
Photo host Shutterfly has filed a suit to stop a new Kodak app that allows users to construct and order photo albums made from pictures the user has stored on Facebook. Shutterfly filed a complaint with the US Bankruptcy Court New York that the "My Kodak Moments App" violates a deal Kodak signed to not set up a duplicate business, and that the technology Kodak is using is the same as the one Shutterfly purchased from the fallen giant.
Despite continuing dismal financial results, Kodak told investors in its annual report that it is intending to emerge from bankruptcy in the summer of 2013, a bit later than expected. The company posted a $402 million loss for the quarter, and lost $1.38 billion dollars in the 2012 fiscal year. The massive losses are nearly double that from 2011.
Chinese company JK Imaging has released its first camera
with Kodak branding. JK Imaging was able to capitalize on Kodak’s financial woes to formally licence the Kodak brand for use on its own products, making them nothing more than Kodak in name only. It has called the first of its new cameras the Kodak S1, which is mirrorless Micro Four Thirds type.
Jusge Allan Gropper, the judge overseeing the Kodak bankruptcy proceedings, has given the go-ahead to its proposed $525 million patent sale. While the offer is just a small fraction of the billions Kodak was originally expecting for the portfolio, the completed sale will allow the company to continue with a plan to obtain an additional $830 million in financing on top of the patent proceeds, and exit bankruptcy in the first half of 2013.
Kodak has sold off $525 million in digital imaging patents to two consortiums led by Apple and Google, according to an official announcement. In all 12 licensees are involved, split between the two consortiums, Intellectual Ventures and RPX Corporation. Each licensee will get rights to part of Kodak's patent portfolio, which is highly valued as a means of defending against lawsuits, or in theory launching new complaints against competitors.
Rather than allow a potential bidding war to drive up the price, or having both parties walk away leaving Kodak without a way to secure needed financing, Apple and Google are said to have opted to team up on a joint, over-$500 million bid for 1,100 Kodak digital imaging patents. The consortium, which also includes several other companies (most notably Microsoft, though HTC and Samsung are rumored to be in as well), may accomplish multiple goals: helping Kodak, keeping the costs down, and (perhaps) heading off future litigation.
Kodak is still in talks with Apple and Google about a purchase of its patent portfolio, Reuters reports. The news comes as Kodak has been granted an extended deadline, until February 28th, to keep exclusive control of its bankruptcy case. Kodak claims that it's "confident" its patents will sell for a $500 million minimum, needed to secure a $793 million loan.
Eastman Kodak is attempting to draw its bankruptcy saga to a close. A deal has reportedly been reached with bondholders for $793 million in loans and other debts that could conceivably extract it from bankruptcy proceedings. A key point to the deal is Kodak being required to sell its digital photography patent portfolio for at least $500 million.
Eastman Kodak filed documents today with the overseeing bankruptcy court to extend the deadline for completing its plan for reorganization until February 28, 2013. In the motion, Kodak described the "substantial progress" it has made toward its goals since filing for the Chapter 11 bankruptcy in January 2012, but it also announced its intention to depart the consumer inkjet printer business, focusing on supplying ink for the installed base.
Eastman Kodak admitted to bankruptcy court Judge Allan Gropper that its patent auction has faltered, and the company has so far been unable to reach a deal with a group of prospective buyers. The company has said that it is delaying the end of the auction indefinitely, and will evaluate other options for the patents for sale. Kodak said it would no longer continue brief extensions of the final sale hearing date. Instead, the patent sale discussions would continue outside the auction, and the court would be notified if a deal is reached. Kodak did warn the judge that it "may not reach acceptable terms with parties via the auction process."
Bankrupt Eastman Kodak has announced its intention to lay off 1,000 more workers by the end of the year, and more job losses may be necessary to stay afloat. Kodak's workforce has fallen to approximately 14,700 from a peak of 145,000 some 30 years ago. Additionally, two members of upper management have departed the company as a result of restructuring forced by the continued Chapter 11 protections. Final results from its patent auction are expected at a September 19 final hearing.
At a hastily called press conference on Thursday, Eastman Kodak announced it would sell its print-film business and several other related businesses to raise additional funds. The endangered imaging giant made the move public in the last days of its patent portfolio auction, which is possibly not raising as much cash as Kodak initially planned. Kodak's businesses up for sale include heavy-duty commercial scanners with embedded optical character recognition for form processing, a business that takes photos of theme park visitors, and kiosks that print digital photos.
Nearly three weeks after US Bankruptcy Court Judge Allan Gropper ruled that the company had no claim to two imaging patents in its struggle with Kodak, Apple has filed an appeal challenging the judge's finding. The two companies are locked in a dispute over the ownership of a total of 10 patents, with Apple seeking to block the auction of the two patents in particular.
Eastman Kodak is scheduled to appear before federal bankruptcy Judge Allan Gropper on August 30. Kodak is in the middle of an digital imaging patent portfolio auction to attempt to raise billions of dollars to pay back the lenders that supported it through its Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The August 30 hearing date suggests that Kodak expects to have the auction process wrapped up by August 23, as according to judicial instruction, the company has to give at least seven days notice of an auction conclusion hearing.
Apple, Google, Samsung, LG, and an assortment of other firms are bidding as a group on Kodak's digital imaging patents, the Wall Street Journal reports. Sources for the paper say that talks and even the group's composition are fluid. While Apple has often been in conflict with Google and Samsung, and is a rival to LG, the strategy could keep the patents out of any one party's hands, preventing some potential lawsuits. At the same time, the Journal suggests that the companies could potentially run afoul of US antitrust laws.
After fighting in court for more than a year, Eastman Kodak is now saying it may sell only some of its patents, or none of them at all. The company is currently in the eighth day of a no-minimum-bid, blind-bidder patent auction that was scheduled to end earlier this week, but was extended on August 13.
Eastman Kodak announced the extension of its patent auction today, saying it would not disclose a victor because it was still in negotiations with prospective bidders. Kodak has declined to comment on the matter in more detail, citing confidentiality agreements in place. The company said it is expecting to submit regulatory filings later today, revealing more information about its business, including financial projections and a report on its path to solvency.
Kodak has received two patent bids from investor groups including Apple and Google of between $150 million and $250 million, according to the Wall Street Journal. The photography company is selling off some 1,100 patents related to digital imaging as a part of bankruptcy proceedings, hoping to pay off creditors. Kodak estimates that its patents could be worth as much as $2.6 billion; while the reported bids might seem extremely low by comparison, the auction will only officially begin on Wednesday, and bids are expected to rapidly increase in value. Reuters notes that in 2011, now-defunct Nortel Networks sold its patents for $4.5 billion, even though the first bids hit just $900 million.
US Bankruptcy Court Judge Allan Gropper has ruled that Apple does not own two of the 10 imaging patents the company was claiming in a dispute between the iPhone maker and the troubled photography pioneer. Kodak is seeking to auction off some 1,100 digital imaging and other patents in an auction that has technically already begun, while Apple has been trying to stop the sale of now eight patents for which it claims it is the true owner.
At least two major groups are expected to bid on Kodak's patent auction, said sources familiar with the matter. Microsoft, Apple, and notorious patent troll Intellectual Ventures are allegedly lining up on one side. Google is headlining a group with Samsung, HTC, LG, and non-practicing entity RPX. Sources familiar with the matter have said that discussions would continue over the weekend, with alliances changing and other bidders potentially emerging. None of the companies named in any of the alliances have commented on the matter.
Manhattan District Court Judge George Daniels has rejected Apple's bid to have its patent dispute with Kodak moved out of bankruptcy court and into district court. The move would have complicated Kodak's plan to sell its potentially lucrative patent portfolio in a sealed-bid process later this year. Kodak is attempting to auction off some 700 digital-capture patents, which have generated more than $3 billion in revenues since the turn of the century.
A US bankruptcy court has approved a Kodak effort to auction off over 1,100 patents, reports Agence France-Presse. Potential buyers must submit bids on a confidential basis; Kodak expects the auction to be held in early August. The main collection in the auction will include some 700 digital capture patents, associated with devices like cameras, tablets, and smartphones. The other has approximately 400 patents, documenting image analysis, manipulation, tagging, and network services.
Kodak has filed a new lawsuit against Apple, hoping to stop the latter from interrupting plans to sell part of its patent portfolio, Reuters reports. Documents were submitted yesterday through a bankruptcy court in Manhattan. Kodak asserts that Apple is wrongly claiming to own 10 patents derived from work the two companies did in the early 1990s. Also listed as a defendant is FlashPoint Technology, which claims ownership through an assignment from Apple, which spun off FlashPoint in 1996.
Southern District of New York Bankruptcy Court Judge Allen L. Gropper denied Eastman Kodak's assertion that Apple has no interest in patents it is trying to sell in a bankruptcy proceeding on Thursday. The judge ruled that Kodak can either schedule a trial to clear the patent dispute, sell the patents and give Apple a share of the proceeds, or pass the dispute onto any patent purchaser that may materialize.
Kodak has filed a motion to sell two of its patent portfolios relating to digital imaging, as part of ongoing bankruptcy proceedings. The Kodak Imaging Systems and Services (KISS) and the Digital Capture patent portfolios contain a combined 1,100 patents for the capture, manipulation and sharing of digital images.
The US International Trade Commission has ruled that a patent involved in Kodak's lawsuit against Apple and Research in Motion is invalid, according to AppleInsider. In particular an administrative law judge has quashed the 6,292,218 patent, Method for Live View Display and Digital Camera Using Same, on the basis of claim 15 in the document. Kodak will reportedly appeal the decision to the full commission, a necessary step if it intends to continue suing Apple and RIM for infringing the patent.
Kodak saw mixed performance on Friday as it fought to get back to profitability. Although it now had a cash balance of $1.4 billion, up from $500 million in a pre-bankruptcy fall 2011, its losses widened from $246 million to $366 million. The deeper impact was pinned on restructuring costs as the company hoped to sell off money-losing divisions.
Kodak was successful on Thursday in preventing Apple from resuming patent lawsuits. Bankruptcy court judge Allan Gropper deemed it "inappropriate" for Apple to either resume its lawsuit against Kodak, or to try and sue again, during the one-time camera legend's bankruptcy process. Judge Gropper was willing to have a quick resolution during bankruptcy, but he wanted a method that "truly works" rather than simply resuming an extant case.
Kodak in court filings submitted Friday but published Monday made arguments trying to stop Apple from continuing a challenge on patent ownership. The soon-to-be-ex camera maker urged a bankruptcy court not to resume the case in federal court. Apple was asking an outside court to decide what was property of a bankrupt firm and what the firm was allowed to do with this patent, not the bankruptcy judge.
Kodak took a key step to getting out of its ongoing bankruptcy by tentatively selling its online Kodak Gallery photo service to Shutterfly. The deal will move both the 75 million users and their photos to the larger, more stable service. Photographers will have the chance to opt out and still get their photos, either through direct downloads for free or by buying photo DVDs while Kodak Gallery is active.
The judge overseeing Kodak's bankruptcy proceedings has approved the company's proposed $950 million financing arrangement between itself and its lenders and bondholders. Kodak filed for Chapter 11 protection in January and sought to use the funds while it sold off some of the 1,100 patents it held to generate cash while it restructured itself and continued to make payroll. The judge, Allan L. Gropper of the US Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York, approved the arrangement despite a series of suits and counter-suits between Kodak, Apple, and others over some of the patents that Kodak now hopes to sell.
Apple filed with the New York state court handling Kodak's bankruptcy to ask for permission to sue the camera maker over patents. It wanted both a civil lawsuit and an ITC trade dispute over patents relating to digital cameras, photo frames, and printers. The iPhone designer didn't believe it necessarily needed to ask before suing, but was practicing an "abundance of caution" before it went ahead.
Kodak validated rumors and said Thursday that it would stop making what most consider its core products. It plans to shut down production of still cameras, pocket video cameras, and digital photo frames within the first half of this year. The shift would leave it to inkjet printers and other photo printing.
Apple in an objection (PDF) late this week hoped to stop Kodak from getting some loans to recover from its bankruptcy status based on patent disputes. The iPhone producer asserted that Kodak, in using its patents as collateral, was using "certain patents" for digital camera technology that were either Apple's or were still the subject of lawsuits. Kodak had "misappropriated" Apple technology and tried to patent it on its own, Apple said, prompting the 2010 countering lawsuit.
A recent prediction that Kodak was on the verge of bankruptcy has proven true with the iconic American company officially filing for bankruptcy protection. Despite a number of restructuring attempts as well as the sale of patents and a string of patent suits seeking damages, the 130-year old pioneering photographic company was forced to seek protection from creditors. It has also secured $950 million in credit from Citibank while its buys time to sell some of its 1,100 patents, and reposition itself while also maintaining the salaries of its 17,000 employees, reports Reuters.
Kodak showed the mounting extent of its troubles Wednesday by suing Samsung over camera patents. It accused the Galaxy Tab designer of violating five patents for "electronic camera" technology, such as capturing photos during previews and transferring them online. It unusually singled out tablets, not smartphones, as purportedly infringing its work.
We stopped by Kodak's booth at CES to take a look at the company's recently unveiled EasyShare M750 and the equally new Playfull Dual. The former has been documented, and can upload photos to a Kodak's gallery or Facebook or upload videos to YouTube once the Share button is pressed. It also selection of social networks or e-mailed to a preset address. Unfortunately, the Wi-Fi wasn't working and we weren't able to check this feature out.
Kodak today filed two patent lawsuits against Apple and HTC, Bloomberg reports. Shared in common between the two cases are four patents involving image transmission; one example involves a method of sharing images directly from a camera. HTC is accused of violating a fifth patent, related to image previews.
Kodak has announced the latest addition to its EasyShare line, the Kodak EasyShare M750 Wireless Camera. The M750 has built in WiFi to simplify photo sharing and syncing with home networks, wireless printers, email or social media. It shares many of the same hardware and photo effects as its predecessor, the EasyShare 5370. These include a 16-megapixel CCD sensor that is also capable of shooting 720p HD video, a 5x optical zoom lens, and a 3.0in capacitive LCD touchscreen with auto brightness control.
Wells Fargo has leaked virtually every camera designer's plans for CES and PMA next week but has provided unusually large amounts of detail for major Canon releases. The PowerShot G1X is Canon's long-awaited if indirect response to mirrorless rivals and carries a large, 1.5-inch, 14.3-megapixel CMOS sensor to let it take in more light and detail than most compacts. Although the 4X, 28-112mm equivalent lens is still non-removable, it now has a wider maximum aperture of f2.5 (better than f2.8) to improve low light and soften backgrounds.
Kodak is drafting Chapter 11 bankruptcy filings in the event it can't sell patents in the next few weeks, insiders asserted Wednesday. The proposed plan seen by the Wall Street Journal would see the camera legend possibly enter bankruptcy later this month or in early February. The reorganization would see it get $1 billion of debtor-in-possession funding and sell its entire library of 1,100 patents through a bankruptcy auction rather than a typical process.
Kodak has warned shareholders that it has received a notice from the New York Stock Exchange that its stock may be delisted. The NYSE is said to have sent a letter nothing that Kodak shares have failed to maintain a closing price of at least $1 for 30 consecutive trading days, in violation of listing standards.
Kodak saw its hopes of bouncing back fade on Friday after it filed twice with the SEC to say three board members had resigned. Adam Clammer and Herald Chen were reported as having left on Tuesday, while Laura Tyson was now known to have left as of the Friday release. Neither release gave an indication as to the reasons for leaving.
Kodak is hoping to sell its Kodak Gallery online photo service to stay afloat, according to leaks. The camera pioneer was said by the Wall Street Journal to be talking to other photo hosting services, retail stores, private equity groups, and even rival camera makers to interest them in a sale. Advisors from FTI Consulting, which led to the sale of the image sensor group, was supposedly involved in this sale as well as part of an attempt to find buyers for as many non-essential divisions as possible
Kodak late Monday sold off its Image Sensor Solutions group to merger and acquisitions giant Platinum Equity. The deal lets Kodak keep using the sensors for its cameras and high-end uses like satellites, but gives up a key factory and research plant in Kodak's home of Rochester, New York. Kodak made it clear that the selloff was to get it closer to being a strictly digital company.
Kodak has quietly warned that it may have difficulty continuing operations if it cannot fetch additional funding. In its quarterly 10-Q filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the company reported a 10 percent drop in cash holdings, down from $957 million to $862 million, and slashed its cash balance forecast for the end of the year by $300 million.
Kodak saw its attempt to force Apple and RIM into settlements renewed on Friday after the ITC replaced the recently retired judge that stalled the case. Judge Thomas Pender will rule on December 30 regarding Kodak's claims that iPhone and BlackBerry technology violate imaging patents. Its ruling is preliminary and won't see a final decision until 2012, when an ITC panel decides if the verdict should be upheld.
