Fascinating news from Kodak today who have just announced heavy losses in their film division.
They have lost $1.8 billion on film sales in the past two years and they reckon the fall-off in sales is about 2x the rate they predicted at the beginning of this year. Kodak have taken the unprecedented step of cutting their annual dividend by a staggering 70% [ its their first reduction in over 100 years ] and have announced that they will make no more major investment in consumer film and will instead concentrate on producing film for other people's "own-brand" film. Mean while Kodak shares have dropped to a 20 year low which will leave them short of funds which they will need for their announced push into new commercial digital products like printers aimed at the home market. Kodak reckon that only 14% of digital pictures get printed and wants to try and encourage people to do more printing When one thinks of the expertise of people like Canon, Epson, Hewlett packard etc in this field one just wonders if Kodak have not left it too late. This news provides a probable reason why Kodak were so desperate to get bthe 14 to market even when it clearly was not a fit product. Clearly the market is changing even faster than they predicted and given the parallel film products they share with Fuji one just wonders how much longer they will be able to continue to sustain the costs of producing products which are less and less relevant. Inconceivable just a few years ago, it is clear that Kodak have got a major battle for survival on their hands and unless they can re-position themselves very swiftly, they will cease to be a player. Shades of Polaroid,,, Mike St Maur Sheil T> + 44 (0) 1367 870 276 F> + 44 (0) 1367 870 641 M> + 44 (0) 7860 508 679 W> www.sheilphoto.co.uk ---------------------------- =============================================================== GO TO http://www.prodig.org for ~ GUIDELINES ~ un/SUBSCRIBING ~ ITEMS for SALE
