Kodak Trying to Paint a Prettier Picture

It is no secret that former camera giants and icons of the industry Eastman Kodak (NYSE: EK) has been suffering for some time in this digital age, but reports on Tuesday are suggesting that the company is looking to simplify itself and cut costs by reducing the number of segments from three to two.

According to AP, the consumers' switch to digital has crippled Kodak, and it said in November that it could run out of cash inside of a year if it did not manage to sell a lot of digital-imaging partents.

AP said that, “Kodak said Tuesday that it now has a commercial and a consumer segment. Both units will report to the new chief operating office, which will be led by COO and President Philip Faraci and by Laura Quatela, who was also recently named as president and COO. Previously, Kodak's business segments were divided into its traditional film and photo paper products, consumer digital imaging and graphic communications, which included printing equipment. No business segments are being cut, just reorganized.”

However, according to Kodak spokesman Christopher Veronda, the company will not be announcing job cuts as part of this reorganization. “We will continue to look for opportunities to streamline operations and properly position the company's portfolio," he said.

AP added that, “Kodak has been reported to be preparing for a bankruptcy reorganization filing if it can't sell the digital-imaging patents, which could fetch as much as $3 billion according to analysts. No buyers have emerged since the company started shopping the patents around in July. In November, it reported its ninth quarterly loss in three years and said its cash reserves had fallen 10 percent in three months. The company's stock rose 14 cents to 54 cents before the market opened on Tuesday. The New York Stock Exchange warned Kodak earlier this month that it would drop the stock if its price remained below $1 per share for the next six months.”

Kodak CEO Antonio Perez said in a statement that, “As we complete Kodak's transformation to a digital company, our future markets will be very different from our past, and we need to organize ourselves in keeping with that evolution. This new structure simplifies the organization, focuses it more precisely on our consumer and commercial customers, and puts the right people in place to capitalize fully on the tremendous technological capabilities of Kodak. These business structure changes also allow us to allocate resources more productively, continue to significantly reduce administrative costs, and improve efficiency. We are confident that these changes will support our efforts to make the most of our opportunities.”