It's official, Kodak is selling its film business.

jp498 · Aug 23, 2012

I did the freezer/film thing last year. I'm beating the hoarders!

removed account4 · Aug 23, 2012

maybe polaroid can buy it ..

NB23 · Aug 23, 2012

Now watch the people at rff thanking the kodak rep for the excellent communication congratulating Kodak for the great efforts in keeping us informed.

LOL

bwfans · Aug 23, 2012

When APUGgers unite and buy up all the Kodak film and put it in the freezers, do they become the biggest hoarder group on the planet for the Kodak film?

We are not beating hoarders, instead we are becoming hoarders ourselves .

PKM-25 · Aug 23, 2012

Forgive me father, for I have hoarded....like.....big time

RattyMouse · Aug 23, 2012

jnanian said:
maybe polaroid can buy it ..

I hope FUJIFILM can buy Kodak's film.

cdkrenzer · Aug 23, 2012

All - sorry I didn't post here as well (I posted on RFF). I work with Kodak's PR agency and my name is Colleen Krenzer. I'll post here what I posted to the RFF site as I do want to have the same information out there. I will caveat this with the process was just initiated today, I work specifically with the film and paper groups and as such, am not involved in the corporate area and therefore, am not privy to all the latest information. That said, I will try my best.

Today, the company announced that is initiating the sales processes for the Personalized Imaging and Document Imaging businesses, which include the still film and P&OS businesses. Some key points.

1. Kodak will continue to manufacture all its products during this time.
2. As Kodak moves forward with the potential transition of these businesses to new ownership, it will ensure that customers continue to have the same products, services and support that they currently receive from Kodak.
3. As it has done with previous businesses that it has sold (e.g. Carestream), Kodak will ensure that the potential buyers shares its commitment to serving customers.

As much as I can, I will share updates with you, on behalf of the company. http://www.businesswire.com/news/hom...sful-Emergence

kb3lms · Aug 23, 2012

So they are selling off the remaining flagship products and keeping movie, graphic arts and x-ray film? Guess that tells us where the money is. Don't forget about x-ray films - millions of dollars there.

(AFAIK, they still coat the x-ray film that is then sold by Carestream.)

RattyMouse · Aug 23, 2012

kb3lms said:
So they are selling off the remaining flagship products and keeping movie, graphic arts and x-ray film? Guess that tells us where the money is. Don't forget about x-ray films - millions of dollars there.

(AFAIK, they still coat the x-ray film that is then sold by Carestream.)

Film X-rays wont last long. Digital is more and more common. My kids had a set of x-rays done by the dentist recently and they were all digital.

markbarendt · Aug 23, 2012

RattyMouse said:
I hope FUJIFILM can buy Kodak's film.

I'd bet they could but they already have the all tools they need to make film.

The only value I see for Fujifilm in buying Kodak's film division is to own the color film market outright.

It seems to me that at least for color film that could easily become a reality, even if they didn't buy Kodak.

lxdude · Aug 23, 2012

bwfans said:
When APUGgers unite and buy up all the Kodak film and put it in the freezers, do they become the biggest hoarder group on the planet for the Kodak film?

We are not beating hoarders, instead we are becoming hoarders ourselves .

Sirius humor strikes again...

SkipA · Aug 23, 2012

RattyMouse said:
I hope FUJIFILM can buy Kodak's film.

Bad idea. Fuji just keep discontinuing films. We would certainly have reduced film and paper diversity if Fuji were to buy Kodak's film and paper business.

nsouto · Aug 23, 2012

If anything it's a good thing: maybe now the remnants will be handled by a company who knows how to handle film and its users.
Instead of the total joke Kodak has been in the last 15 years!

kb3lms · Aug 23, 2012

Film X-rays wont last long. Digital is more and more common.

Sure they will. Onex/Carestream didn't buy that whole market from Kodak just to have it go T-U after just a few years. Film x-rays are cheap and can be done with equipment that has been in place for the last 25 years (or more) and fully depreciated. I'm talking about hospital imaging, not dental office stuff. Even in it's heydey, Kodak barely paid attention to dental.

In the 1990s, Kodak PROFITS in this market were 1 to 3 billion dollars per year against three heavy-hitter competitors. Granted, I've been away from it for 15 years but everytime I've gone through a hospital in the last 5 years, which has been far too many times, everything is done on ancient, cheap x-ray gear. And I doubt the Obamacare environment is going to justify stepping up to replace all that gear with multi-megadollar digital imaging suites.

New installations will go fully digital, though. No argument there.

IloveTLRs · Aug 23, 2012

How and why do people see salvation in Fujifilm?

bdial · Aug 23, 2012

sigh.
I guess we'll see what happens, looks like a recipe for disaster though.

Richard S. (rich815) · Aug 23, 2012

If they are keeping movie film them we can still get Double X (5222)!

semi-ambivalent · Aug 24, 2012

markbarendt said:
I'd bet they could but they already have the all tools they need to make film.

The only value I see for Fujifilm in buying Kodak's film division is to own the color film market outright.

It seems to me that at least for color film that could easily become a reality, even if they didn't buy Kodak.

For B&W, what then? When Kodak "sells its film business" what does that mean? Are they selling the formulas, the coating machinery, the license to the name of e.g. "Tri-X"? If people are loyal to Tri-X because it has a different look than HP5 could not Harmon buy the formula/process for Tri-X and produce an emulsion that is a complement to HP5? If they owned it Tri-X would no longer be a competitor. In this scenario Harmon wants to make money. If they can net more money by owning and producing a onetime Kodak emulsion, why not? They already own the means of production and I bet it's not running at its full capacity.

It feels like there's an assumption afoot that if "Kodak film" dies then Tri-X (or Plus-X (or Panatomic-X (or Double X))) must die as well. That is not, by necessity, the case. It all hinges on ownership, demand, and cost of production. For all the grousing going on here about this or that film going away you must remember this: It is not outside the realm of possibility that Kodak's death is the key to having again everything you lost.

But then, I'm talking through my hat here.

s-yeah, I hoard Tri-X-a

Brian C. Miller · Aug 24, 2012

semi-ambivalent said:
It feels like there's an assumption afoot that if "Kodak film" dies then Tri-X (or Plus-X (or Panatomic-X (or Double X))) must die as well. That is not, by necessity, the case. It all hinges on ownership, demand, and cost of production. For all the grousing going on here about this or that film going away you must remember this: It is not outside the realm of possibility that Kodak's death is the key to having again everything you lost.

But then, I'm talking through my hat here.

s-yeah, I hoard Tri-X-a

It all still comes down to supply and demand. The last stats I heard about Kodak film was that the commercial side (movie film) is 95% of the business, and the consumer side (everything else) is 5% of the business. They dropped their entire E-6 product line. (I am not hoarding Tri-X, yet. I'm going after the remaining E100G and E100VS!) Kodak will be supplying film for the movie industry through 2015. And then what?

What shape will the movie industry be in three years down the road? How many theater complexes will be all digital in 2015? (The local cinemas are mostly digital, big exception for Pacific Science Center IMAX)

The real question is, how long will we have Tri-X?

nexus757 · Aug 24, 2012

Desperate plans for desperate times I suppose. But film is the one thing Kodak has made better than anybody in the world for 120 years. McDonald's might as well sell off their hamburger division.

RattyMouse · Aug 24, 2012

IloveTLRs said:
How and why do people see salvation in Fujifilm?

Because they are not in bankruptcy. Because Fujifilm has publicly stated they still believe in film photography.

lxdude · Aug 24, 2012

RattyMouse said:
Because Fujifilm has publicly stated they still believe in film photography.

Yes, their film.
They don't need more capacity than they have already, and they either have or have discontinued their own competition to Kodak's films.

I don't see it making economic sense for Fuji, and that must be their primary consideration.

Roger Cole · Aug 24, 2012

Sounds like potential good news to me. Many of us have said for a long time that one way Kodak film could survive would be as a smaller operation sold off to someone who will do it right and hopefully not be under all the legacy debt. This is the first step. I used to contact for a company that supplied IT services to Eastman Chemical (I'm from northeast TN.) They're doing well. I know the film business isn't the chemical business but they've successfully spun off divisions before. Hopefully we will see it again.

And to those asking who cares, large format color negative shooters, for one. Fuji color neg is not readily available in this country in sheets. (Plus Fuji just doesn't have a negative film like Ektar, and arguably not as good as the Portras, in any size.)

Steve Smith · Aug 24, 2012

kb3lms said:
I'm talking about hospital imaging, not dental office stuff.

My dentist uses X ray film and has no intention of changing to digital. There's no point when what you have already works fine.

Steve.

Roger Cole · Aug 24, 2012

My dentist is all digital. One of my long time friends is an x-ray technician at a regional hospital and has been since the 80s. He says it's been years since he developed film. All 100% digital.

It's official, Kodak is selling its film business.

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