Further to my post To be reborn, first you have to die which featured Kodak, the inevitable has now happened. Kodak last night filed for Chapter 11 bankrupcy protection in New York. It has also obtained a $950 million, 18-month credit facility from Citigroup to keep it going in the meanwhile. Filings state that Kodak has assets of $5.1 billion and debt of $6.8b with $7.2b revenues last year- sinking at the rate of 14% per quarter.
As I said before I think the Kodak story will resonate with a number of cash-cow giants in the tech world currently struggling with how to adapt to the new models (Cloud, social, consumerisation, mobility etc) Baggage often impeded reinvention. Most companies are too slow and reluctant to ditch the old whilst it is still making some, albeit declining, revenue. But history shows that ‘To be reborn, first you have to die’.
I’m sure we will be reporting several ‘tech Kodaks’ over the coming years.