Bill Gates' 5.2% Investment in Kodak

bwfans · Feb 19, 2009

I remembered Bill Gates invested in Apple many years ago when Apple was in deep trouble.

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According to Bloomberg: "Feb. 17 (Bloomberg) -- Microsoft Corp. co-founder and Chairman Bill Gates boosted his stake in Eastman Kodak Co., the camera pioneer that lost more than $4.5 billion in market value last year as it struggled to shift to digital photography.

Cascade Investment LLC, owned by Gates, bought 7.95 million shares in Kodak, raising his stake in the company to 5.2 percent, Rochester, New York-based Kodak said in a regulatory filing today. The investment would make Gates the fourth-largest shareholder in Kodak as of Dec. 31, according to Bloomberg data. "

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=ae5ayfK67YxY&refer=us

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Any comments?

Pinholemaster · Feb 19, 2009

I better shift to Fuji products out of fear that Kodak products will work as well as Windows Vista.

Ha ha ha ha ha ha

Sirius Glass · Feb 19, 2009

Pinholemaster said:
I better shift to Fuji products out of fear that Kodak products will work as well as Windows Vista.

Ha ha ha ha ha ha

Now that is really scary!

Steve

Kent10D · Feb 19, 2009

The idea that all my images will come out as blue screens is just too depressing!

But on a more serious note, THANKS BILL!!

mwdake · Feb 19, 2009

I hope this does not mean that cameras will take 10 minutes to boot up and crash when we change the shutter speed.

JBrunner · Feb 19, 2009

Vista is about to release the shutter. Confirm or deny?

Ektagraphic · Feb 19, 2009

I am really tired of hearing the Kodak is "shifting into a digital company". They need to make up there mind...I don't like those words...Luckly we just got Ektar

JBrunner · Feb 19, 2009

Ektagraphic said:
I am really tired of hearing the Kodak is "shifting into a digital company". They need to make up there mind...I don't like those words...Luckly we just got Ektar

I think of it as two different companies, and in some ways it is. I wouldn't underestimate the passion or dedication of the folks on the film side.

Ektagraphic · Feb 19, 2009

JBrunner said:
I think of it as two different companies, and in some ways it is. I wouldn't underestimate the passion or dedication of the folks on the film side.

Now that I think about it more I do have to agree with you. If the weren't passionate or dedicated over on the film side I doubt we would still have some of the film we do.

removed account4 · Feb 19, 2009

i wonder if bg will end up owning the rights to
all images made on kodak products soon.
he does own corbis, and isn't he involved
with that "harvest all the image off the internet-crawl and make it part of the gigantic mosiac-image"
project that got all that " gee-wizz" airtime a year or so ago ?
between that and the fact that no one will ever notice their images have been harvested,
and they will be considered orphaned ...

i am happy he thought enough to help a struggling friend
but at the same time it worries me ..

accozzaglia · Feb 20, 2009

Bloody hell. My Ektachrome E200 emulsion is ruined by the LITELEEK trojan horse. Now I'm little miss crankypants.

arigram · Feb 20, 2009

Nooooooooooooooooooo!

mpirie · Feb 20, 2009

It goes to show how much foresight Fox Talbot had in the early days........he was taking pictures of Windows way back!

Can you imagine if Microsoft ran Kodak? Every time we opened a box of film, there would be a note inside saying "Please contact your film dealer, this pack of Trix-X has holes in the emulsion. Please apply the latest patch"!

Marco B · Feb 20, 2009

Kent10D said:
The idea that all my images will come out as blue screens is just too depressing!

Don't you like cyanotypes than?

Aurum · Feb 20, 2009

Hmmm a 3 button shutter Ctrl/Alt/Del?

mjs · Feb 20, 2009

JBrunner said:
Vista is about to release the shutter. Confirm or deny?

Clippy, you're an evil, evil man!

pauliej · Feb 20, 2009

You know how to make a small fortune on Wall Street? Invest a LARGE fortune with Bernie Madoff...

paulie

arigram · Feb 20, 2009

Seriously though, considering that Kodak was the Microsoft of the photographic world, the founder of one giant monopolistic monolithic dinosaur makes sense to invest in another. The difference is of course that Kodak actually produces good products and unlike Microsoft didn't get to be large and hold its place using the worst business methods available and a complete lack of ethics. Both companies though straggle in the present market and is mostly due to a changing field, a stiff, chaotic and dysfunctional structure and an incompetent short sighted management. Both companies have been funding innovative "experiments" which are almost immediately canned to continue basing the company's profits and survival on their mainstream milk cow. Both companies are in fear of been overtaken by their smaller, more innovative and flexible competitors, but all their efforts are on survival, not expansion.
I would definitely miss Kodak as they still make great film products which they manage to enhance constantly, but not Microsoft which has held the computer world back and continues to do so.
Gates probably sees some Kodak technology he could use.

Marco B · Feb 20, 2009

arigram said:
Gates probably sees some Kodak technology he could use.

A method to give his words and actions a silver lining perhaps?...

fschifano · Feb 20, 2009

Kodak makes the sensors that go into an awful lot of digital cameras. They're no slouches when it comes to in-camera image processing software either. I see a connection there.

Ken N · Feb 20, 2009

Given that "The Bill" has invested a significant portion of his piggy bank into Kodak tells me something about the future of Kodak. Bill is one extremely smart cookie and I think we need to wake up and smell the fixer. Kodak isn't going away. It has fingers reaching into some very disparate industries.

Now the rose is falling off of Canon's bloom, it may be time to see the rise of the companies with extremely long-term strategies.

JBrunner · Feb 20, 2009

Kidding aside, the last time I looked Bill wasn't on the board of Kodak. I doubt his holding firm is interested in anything but viable investment. If it helps Kodak keep making film, bravo!

Dinesh · Feb 20, 2009

arigram said:
.... unlike Microsoft didn't get to be large and hold its place using the worst business methods available and a complete lack of ethics.

Don't hate the player, hate the game.

Both companies though straggle in the present market and is mostly due to a changing field, a stiff, chaotic and dysfunctional structure and an incompetent short sighted management.

If M produces such bad products and are so poorly managed, why have they not gone the way of the Dodo?

but not Microsoft which has held the computer world back and continues to do so.

Is this merely conjecture or do you have any evidence of this?

Nobody roots for Goliath - Wilt Chamberlain

The Gates Foundation will donate 3.8 of it's approx. 54 billion billion in assets to charity this year. Yep, Gates is a devil if ever I've seen one! :rolleyes:

arigram · Feb 20, 2009

Dinesh said:
Don't hate the player, hate the game.

The players make the game.

If M produces such bad products and are so poorly managed, why have they not gone the way of the Dodo?

They will, but a behemoth like that doesn't go down so easily.
Plus, you assume that somehow business darwinism is related just to the quality of the product and service and not to the strategy and tactics used to enlarge and survive. If that was the case most governments and businesses wouldn't survive this long.

Is this merely conjecture or do you have any evidence of this?

What? Do you want me to discuss the whole history of Microsoft in here in detail? That would be like trying to convince someone of the failings of the Soviet Union. Nothing is secret to be needing "proof". If you have any knowledge of the history of computing, you don't ask such a question. I am not interested in wasting my time for something so blatantly obvious that anyone can find out by themselves if they don't know already know.

The Gates Foundation will donate 3.8 of it's approx. 54 billion billion in assets to charity this year. Yep, Gates is a devil if ever I've seen one! :rolleyes:

Of course, it doesn't matter where the money comes from, as long its for a good cause. Even the mafia and drug barons donate to charity, what's your point? At the very least, its very good marketing.

dwdmguy · Feb 20, 2009

Remember whom it buddy is... Warren! Same method, undervalued, long time, hold forever.

Bill Gates' 5.2% Investment in Kodak

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