Why should Kodak fire Perez?

[Darkroom317]

OK, so a new spectacularly capable CEO will turn back the clock for EK? Really?

Maybe. Look at what Alan Mullay did for Ford

 

[keithwms]

Heh well Mullaly had a lot of political support. EK is in a State with a lousy Governor and crap Senators and Reps who've never created a job in their lives. To save a big company in this kind of situation, you need Fed assistance, and that doesn't happen unless the State reps are pressing their case.

 

[Aristophanes]

Kodak has a poison pill on the secured debt guarding against both hostile and friendly takeovers. If that was gone about 2 years ago a takeover may have been possible. Now the only way to remove that barrier is Ch. 11. Perez guarding his own turf against outside interest and comment is a major reason why institutional shareholders abandoned the company, and another reason for termination.

 

[keithwms]

P.S. I should refine my comments somewhat. I didn't mean to imply that Mullaly isn't doing a great job on his own merits, or that he got as much political support and Fed cash as GM. Ford certainly was wise to avoid taking Fed funds and to bring back their dividend. But... just saying, the US auto industry is the holy of holies in DC right now, there's no way it'll be allowed to go away any time soon.

 

[MDR]

Keith Perez seems to have political connections straight into the White house but he only seems to use them to promote himself. To cite the Queen of hearts from Wonderland
"Off with his head"

Dominik

 

[keithwms]

Keith Perez seems to have political connections straight into the White house

The WH has zippo to do with getting Bills introduced. Those guys are in way over their heads and don't know how to deal with a divided Congress. Yeah Perez can get on the jobs council... with Laura D'Freaking Tyson and Immelt, so what.

What is needed is a loud bunch of NY representatives inserting earmarks or whatever we call them now and *demanding* that some contracts flow to EK. If Kodak were in Virginia, you can bet your left kidney that they'd be getting plenty of Federal assistance. But Schumer and Gillibrand and Cuomo et al can live with EK shutting down under their watch. What do they care. They're all lawyers. Not a lick of business sense in any of them.

 

[Darkroom317]

The WH has zippo to do with getting Bills introduced. Those guys are in way over their heads and don't know how to deal with a divided Congress. Yeah Perez can get on the jobs council... with Laura D'Freaking Tyson and Immelt, so what.

What is needed is a loud bunch of NY representatives inserting earmarks or whatever we call them now and *demanding* that some contracts flow to EK. If Kodak were in Virginia, you can bet your left kidney that they'd be getting plenty of Federal assistance. But Schumer and Gillibrand and Cuomo et al can live with EK shutting down under their watch. What do they care. They're all lawyers. Not a lick of business sense in any of them.

If Kodak was in New York City instead of Rochester, they might actually care about helping it. But it doesn't seem likely to happen as it is.

 

[MDR]

Keith my comment was meant more tongue in cheek than serious. You are right though Kodak needs some serious lobbying in DC and the NY State Gov. but it seems that most politicians were already bribed by the digital Folks both in the US and EU. Politician don't care about jobs they care about bribes. Most state employees I know from across the bond and in the EU are hard working individuals that get constantly fucked by their boss who got their position trough a friend it seems to be the same thing in the business world. Perez is the best proof for that. If a politician talks about job programms and helping people it's always a bad sign.

Dominik

 

[keithwms]

I understand Dominik! All too well.

 

[lxdude]

Even if Kodak goes down the drain today, we still have freezers full of Portra 160 and 400 which would have never seen the light otherwise.

That's cold comfort...

So to speak.

 

[SilverGlow]

Why all this talk of EK needing to turn to the government for help? That is so, so European :-(...better for EK to stand or fall on their own two legs....the last thing this country needs is for government to bail out a private sector company, especially one whose days are numbered. Let the market do with EK what it will....EK needs to be gone....and that vacuum taken up by other companies that know how to make and implement sensors, printers, inkjet cartridges....EK needs to lead or get out of the way...Forget this talk of Perez needing to go...EK needs to go...bye, bye you shame to America!

 

[MDR]

Silverglow is a discussion of the benefits of the US vs EU system really necessary each has its good and bad sides. Besides the US economy would be in dire straights if the evil government wouldn't help it all the time in this regard they are the same as in Europe. GMC ring a bell, Boeing Tanker that only exists on paper but still won the bid against Airbus. It seems that a lot of americans actually don't know anything about their so called free market it doesn't really exist as soon as the free market runs into trouble it runs crying to daddy government to save it.

Dominik

 

[removed account4]

let them restructure,
and see what happens

maybe if they can't pull out of their funk
their film operations ( consumer + professional )
will be picked up by someone else, and run until
the analog market is in full collapse ..
right now it is in 1/2 collapse,
and it had nothing to do with perex

 

[bwfans]

"Kodak Said in Talks With Citigroup on Bankruptcy Financing" - From "Business Week" 17 hours ago.

 

[NB23]

Perez, Gonzalez... Not sure.

Anyhow, just look at Fuji: this is what kodak was supposed to do.
The X100, the film cameras, the X1-pro... I'm not sure a Hewlett Packard guy could have done that.

 

[Plate Voltage]

Anyhow, just look at Fuji: this is what kodak was supposed to do.
The X100, the film cameras, the X1-pro... I'm not sure a Hewlett Packard guy could have done that.

I'm pretty sure at one time an HP guy could have, but that would've been before they split the company in two. Instead of hiring from what's still called Hewlett Packard, Kodak would probably have gotten a better CEO if they hired someone from the Agilent half instead. The other day I was in Future Shop and took a look at what they had for printers. All of them were cheap (<$100) junk plastic ink jet printers from Hewlett Packard and other players established in that market. Seriously, they're a nearly worthless commodity item. That's why there are almost constant promotions where you get a free printer or a printer for $20 when you buy a computer.

Perez should've been fired for hinging Kodak's future on breaking into the sub-$100 printer market that's already crowded. The direction that Eastman Chemical went once they were spun off would've been a more solid footing for Kodak as a whole if they embraced becoming a chemical company instead of trying to poach enough cheap junk printer sales from HP, Epson, Canon, Lexmark to make the company viable.

 

[bwfans]

"The very expensive ink cartridges you buy from HP or Canon or Epson come with a new head in every printer cartridge which drives up the price. Kodak could sell you a better printer with a superior permanent head and much cheaper ink cartridges. It was quite a value proposition for heavy users. Kodak could undersell the competition dramatically and hopefully gain enough market share to make a nice profit, once it had seeded the market. In the end, that never has happened. In retrospect, selling some printers could never replace the ubiquitous little yellow boxes that were famous around the globe as one of the greatest of U.S. brands."

See Forbes article here:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/joanlap...ng-digital-put-eastman-kodak-into-bankruptcy/

 

[bwfans]

From the same article above:

"I blame the Board for allowing Perez to follow what he knew and not what the company needed to revitalize its future."

 

[bwfans]

"The Kodak executives who work in the ivory tower should all resign in shame for what they have done. Most of them are HP transplants from California with no ties to the Rochester area." From a post at NYTimes website.

 

[Hatchetman]

How does a guy get five years to drive a company into the ground AND THEN get to remain CEO after declaring bankruptcy?!

 

[MDR]

The last sentence regarding the Kodak executives coming from HP struck a chord with me three years ago the Austrian national Airlines that never had any debt or money problems until five years ago was sold to Lufthansa the money problems started when 99% percent of the Board/executives were coming from Lufthansa and Siemens. Maybe HP was undermining Kodak efforts to become a printer company imho the cheap Kodak printers were a lot better than HP cheaper offerings.

Dominik

 

[bwfans]

Kodak has reported a loss for eight straight years.

Perez has been the president, then CEO, then Kodak's Chairman during this period. (Since 2003 to 2011)

What Perez achieved during the nine years is running this big company into the ground, other than commute weekly on company planes to his home in California.

 

[keithwms]

How does a guy get five years to drive a company into the ground AND THEN get to remain CEO after declaring bankruptcy?!

The last thing you want to do is go looking for a new person before the sh*t has hit the fan. It'd be really hard to find a competent new CEO who wants to begin a new position prior to chp 11. Better to pin the tail on the donkey and then get a new person once it is clear that there will be something left to reorg.

 

[NB23]

How does a guy get five years to drive a company into the ground AND THEN get to remain CEO after declaring bankruptcy?!

To me, this shows that they threw the towel long ago.

 

[pbromaghin]

The last thing you want to do is go looking for a new person before the sh*t has hit the fan. It'd be really hard to find a competent new CEO who wants to begin a new position prior to chp 11. Better to pin the tail on the donkey and then get a new person once it is clear that there will be something left to reorg.

Right. You go into bankruptcy and then fire him to make room for the new guy. Running a company into the ground and navigating bankruptcy are 2 vastly different skill sets. Most of us could probably handle the former.