BY OSABUOHIEN VIVIAN ROSE
Eastman Kodak, the 133-year-old photography company, is warning investors that it might not be in the market much longer.
In its Monday earnings report, the company warned that it doesn’t have “committed financing or available liquidity” to pay its roughly $500 million in upcoming debt obligations. “These conditions raise substantial doubt about the company’s ability to continue as a going concern,” Kodak said in a filing.
Kodak aims to conjure up cash by ceasing payments for its retirement pension plan. It also said that it doesn’t expect tariffs to have “material impacts” on its business because it manufactures many of its products, including cameras, inks and film in the United States.
A Kodak spokesperson said that it’s “confident it will be able to pay off a significant portion of its term loan well before it becomes due, and amend, extend or refinance our remaining debt and/or preferred stock obligations,” according to CNN.
Shares of Eastman Kodak slumped more than 25% on Tuesday noon trading.
The Eastman Kodak Company incorporated in 1892, but the company traces its roots back to 1879, when George Eastman obtained his first patent for a plate-coating machine. In 1888, Eastman sold the first Kodak camera for $25.
At the time, photography was not a mass business because of the technical skills and equipment needed to do it, but the Kodak camera was designed to make photography more widely accessible. Eastman coined the slogan: “You push the button, we do the rest.”
The name was largely meaningless, with the word “Kodak,” according to the company, being invented by Eastman out thin air: “The letter ‘K’ had been a favorite with me — it seems a strong, incisive sort of letter.”
Kodak was successful producing cameras and film since last century. At one point in the 1970s, it was responsible for 90% of film and 85% of camera sales in the United States, according to The Economist.
But that powerful market position would not last because of technology that the company invented: Kodak introduced the first digital camera in 1975.
Kodak failed to capitalize on the rise of the digital technology. In 2012, it filed for bankruptcy. At the time of its Chapter 11 filing, it had 100,000 creditors and debts totaling $6.75 billion.
Despite its recent losses, Kodak recently said it aims to expand that part of its business. The company continues to manufacture films and chemicals for businesses, including the movie industry and also pharmaceutical ingredient producers.
