Kodak in discussions to sell film business
Kodak is already talking with potential buyers, less than a month after it announced it would sell its film and paper businesses, as well as its retail imaging and event imaging divisions, Kodak's Dennis Olbrich tells BJP in an exclusive interview
Author: Olivier Laurent
In August, Kodak announced it was selling its film and paper businesses, as the company remains under bankruptcy protection in an effort to re-emerge as a smaller but stronger entity dedicated to, among other things, inkjet printing.
BJP's Olivier Laurent meets with Dennis Olbrich, general manager of the film, paper and output systems, and vice president of the consumer business at Eastman Kodak Company, to ask him what this sale will mean for the future of Kodak's range of films.
"The key thing we are trying to get across to customers, and to the world, is that Kodak is selling these businesses, not shutting these businesses down," says Olbrich. "We are extremely committed to both the film and Silver Halide businesses going forward. We have a good business and are expecting these businesses to continue long into the future." But in different hands.
The goal, says Olbrich, is to find one buyer that will take on both the Personalized Imaging and Document Imaging divisions, which encompass digital scanners, picture kiosks, souvenir photo products, photographic paper, as well as Kodak's legendary film businesses. "It's still early in the process and, honestly, we won't know [what exactly will be transferred] until we enter into negotiations with the final buyer. We would prefer one buyer for all these divisions, primarily because we think there are a lot of synergies between these businesses. That was our going-in position, and the more we mapped out these businesses, the more these synergies became clearer. It makes a lot of sense to sell these as one business. We believe our buyers, as we start to talk to them and get into more detailed discussions, will come to the same conclusions."
But Olbrich was able to confirm that Kodak has already received enquiries from potential buyers. "We have started to talk with people," he tells BJP. "There has been a lot of interest, and a lot of people are extremely anxious to discuss this with us. We are in the process of signing Non-Disclosure Agreements with people who are interested and just starting to get into the process of setting up sessions with these potential buyers."
Some of these buyers are traditional photographic companies, as well as private equity firms, BJP understands.
Kodak expects the sale to be completed by mid-2013, with employees across the world affected. But, in the meantime, Olbrich says it's business as usual. "We are still continuing to make the film, we are still continuing to sell the film and, frankly, people are continuing to buy it at a pretty good rate. We have been very successful with the colour negative professional films and the black-and-white films. These are strong businesses and we fully expect that buyers will see that, will be excited about the process, and potentially invest more money into these businesses going forward."
BJP will publish its full interview with Dennis Olbrich tomorrow as part of its Special Photokina iPhone editions. To read the full interview, download the iPhone app here.
Comments
Interested in the interview but not an iPhone.
I'm very frustrated that I can't access the rest of the interview. I have no desire to own an iPhone (or any other Apple product). Why can't you make the rest of the interview available on the website for subscribers? Either that or make a Windows Phone app as well.
The only problem I've ever had with Kodak, is the extra second it took me to work out which way round I was holding the negative.
Maybe they will sell to a company that has a much easier name to orientate, with let's say, an 'F' in their name.
Fritz, may reasons. You have a chronic lack of insight into how anyone other than yourself thinks if you can say that.
Kodak, please do not sell your film business to the folks at the impossible project.
i have had nothing but rude treatment from them.
they are condescending and rude.
actually lied on their defective film replacement on their flicker groups discussion.
i predict the impossible project will not be
be around long.
a bunch of clowns they are.
film can be viable, for the right market
^^ I did not know that Yoda was into photography.
Having said that, I think the film business can work if the volumes are appropriate for the current market. The new Portra and Ektar stocks are quite good.
Hilarious all the commentary about the iphone app. I spend thousands a year on film, paper and chemistry, shoot both medium and large format professionally. I also use apps like Viewfinder Pro to pre-visualize 4x5 shots, LightMeter as a replacement for a bulky spot meter and the Massive Development Chart for that work, just to name a few. If you want to promote film use and see it into the future, you can not be a bitter old film shooter like some on here seem to be, you have to bring it into the future folks..
The fact is, so far in 2012, the iPhone has only managed 16% market share vs. 68% for Android and the rest Blackberry and so on.
Forcing an iPhone app on people without offering an Android version is just silly.
And begs the question, WHY in the world should you have to download ANY app, iPhone or Android or whatever, in order to finish reading an article on the web? Because you want to alienate your readers?
Okay, mission accomplished. Now I'll go to Google and find a full article somewhere else to read. Bye.
well, as a dedicated film shooter – predominantly KODAK – I am really disappoiunted not to be able to read the full interview. I will not own an iphone in the near future even though there are indeed handy apps mentioned in the comment's stream. So please – in the near future – make that interview accessible to all. Thanks a bunch, Rolf
Keep the good quality Kodak films.
Although I am mainly a digital photographer I still have 3 film cameras and lenses, both 35mm and medium format, and I would hate to lose the wonderful choices that we have now with both film and digital capture.
Kodak and Fuji have both produced some wonderful films over the years and the current Kodak Ektar film is certainly one of the best. Let us hope that it remains in good hands.
I hope to god film is going to be available well into the future as I have stacks of film gear and I fear obsolescence.
They jst want to make a buck and those executives to get the big bonuses, no more pride, they are outsiders, they will kill the company. Greed.
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