Kodak Seeking to Sell its Patent Portfolio

[semi-ambivalent]

I feel a similar sadness (though signficantly less) when people are rushing to get rid of their VCR's and all their VHS tapes, like my parents. I mean, transferring family memories to DVD and who knows how many actually keep the original tapes (I've convinced my parents to).

How many VHS tapes do you know that skip, stall, and generally stop working? Besides getting eaten (which is usually to blame on the machine), they're a far more robust media than DVD and yet no one seems to recall this or care. Record a show on SP quality and you won't believe it's VHS.

The problem is, this kind of talk out of my mouth immediately gets stamped LUDDITE, NOSTALGIA FREAK, etc. I feel like I'm just being practical...

There used to be a used shop here called AAF Photographica. I wandered in there occasionally and one day found a stack of 8mm film cans labeled, e.g., "honeymoon-NYstreet-53". They were all full. A dollar a piece or the stack for $10. I passed. (What a dolt I was, and I own an 8mm projector.) I hope their VHS tapes -> DVDs held up for the grandkids.

 

[Newt_on_Swings]

As a person who still uses minidiscs for a large part of my classical music collection, I sometimes get a similar kind of comment! When you think about it, these people are actually been damned rude! How would they feel if their choice of car, clothes or latest-trendy-gadgets was criticised?

My step-daughter recently bought a BMW and someone said to her "Oh, you've joined the *****ers who drive BMW's". Quick as a flash, she replied "Well, you don't have to drive a BMW to be a *****er!". Smart girl.

(Sorry, getting OT)

HAHA I actually liked minidiscs! There was even a minidisc player in my car up until recently. Good format, great protection of discs, but a hassle for recording =[ 1:1 speeds, I mean really?! they sped it up later on to 1:4x speed but still.

 

[MattCarey]

Minidisks are a cool technology. Sony could have owned the MP3 player market, just as Apple does now. But as a content provider, Sony made it difficult to record. You couldn't transfer files directly from a computer.

 

[tomalophicon]

I made recordings on 1/2" audio tape of some musicians around 15 years ago.
I recently went back and listened to the tapes and they are MAGIC! The sounds oozes warmth and smoothness. We do miss out on an inherent character when we rush to digital.

 

[ic-racer]

Off topic, but if you all like analog audio, tube audio and analog video check out AudioKarma.com. Its bigger than APUG, over 100,000 members.

 

[Athiril]

Ok, forget what I said about VHS. However, you should never throw away originals on VHS.

Perhaps I had a crappy DVD player, but I couldn't watch a movie without it skipping, stopping and generally ruining my movie experience.

Didn't mean to pull the thread off topic...

Unfortunately newer commercial big budget films on DVD have so many physical defects and flaws and broken IFO structure on purpose as forms of copy protection it simply breaks many DVD players being able to play them normally - you'll find these as discs with no scratches nothing wrong, but will randomly skip or stop in different places each time etc.

 

[Athiril]

I made recordings on 1/2" audio tape of some musicians around 15 years ago.
I recently went back and listened to the tapes and they are MAGIC! The sounds oozes warmth and smoothness. We do miss out on an inherent character when we rush to digital.

1/2" tape isn't 2" tape so you're missing out on a lot of quality not using digital Neutrality free of signal defects ('warmth') is very well desired in audio engineering, although a lot of people used the SSL G tube console (recorded straight into ProTools though) at my school, a couple projects would use 2" tape.

 

[Monito]

Off topic, but if you all like analog audio, tube audio and analog video check out AudioKarma.com. Its bigger than APUG, over 100,000 members.

That's dead.

However, http://www.audiokarma.org/ seems to be active. Hint: details count (especially in photography, a technical art).

All the same, thanks for the lead. (and the Led)

 

[Photo Engineer]

On topic warning!

Kodak has issued a Net Operating Loss Shareholder Protection Plan to protect the company and its assets during this volatile and depressed market period. It mostly affects those who have or trade at 4% or greater in total stocks of the company.

I am not sure yet what this means, but I know that there have been no profits on stock for about 3 years.

PE

 

[arpinum]

PE,

The shareholder protection plan is a device to make a takeover by an outside firm more expensive and less likely by requiring any buyer to in effect pay shareholders double the sale value. The share price had gotten so low they were worried about someone taking over and liquidating assets.
You can also think of it as a senior management job protection program.

In other on topic news and speculation:

The recent HP/WebOS news is bad for Kodak, as more patents will be up for sale that pertain to the mobile space. Palm's patent portfolio was very strong.

Also bad news: Kodak talking about their patent sale and spreading news to the WSJ that there is already one major player very interested in buying the patents. Methinks the sale isn't going well.

 

[Diapositivo]

Kodak said they are examining the possibility of selling their digital patent portfolio. That is, considering that recently "patents" were exchanged, apparently, at very good prices, it might be a good moment to sell them if a buyer is found for a good price.

The "strategy" is probably to secure the uncertain earning stream that patent litigation is bringing to Kodak in the last years, and use that money, presumably, to gain time to demonstrate the "business case" that the management is bringing forward. Of this business case, the printing technology (expensive, yet superior in quality) is not going to take the market until the present economic condition persists, so Kodak has to "buy time", has to survive this long night hoping in a new dawn, and selling patents might give them a definite amount of time to show that Kodak can find a new stream of revenues and profits.

Normally the market (market analysts to say better) would analyse the firm circumstances and, if there is merit in their proposal, they would "buy" into the proposition and bet on future success. At the moment, the market does not seem very convinced. At the moment, though, the market does not seem very convinced of ANY business proposition, for various reasons. Kodak is sinking because the market is sinking.

Selling the patents can be seen as a way to "buy time", or as a desperate move to keep the nose above water level beyond what the current finance levels would allow (which is probably some years in any case).

The degree of "desperation", or "business acumen" at Kodak can be judged only if a sale actually takes place and only after having considered its price. If the price is "good", the move is wise: an uncertainty factor is eliminated and Kodak can survive for a longer time and have more probabilities to reach a new spring.

If the price is "not good" than this can be seen as firing the last cartridge and Kodak will be valued, by the market, solely on the merit of its normal, "operating" activity.

I'll begin worrying when and if a sale is carried on at a "not good" price.

 

[tomalophicon]

1/2" tape isn't 2" tape so you're missing out on a lot of quality not using digital Neutrality free of signal defects ('warmth') is very well desired in audio engineering, although a lot of people used the SSL G tube console (recorded straight into ProTools though) at my school, a couple projects would use 2" tape.

Quality Shmwality!