Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2003/06/19
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Seth, Not to hammer Kodak, but this is a medium format chip which will have miniscule market penetration. Think it through, studio backs represent what percent of the market? For an investment in a photo related field I would consider the Canon depository receipts. This company is a lot like Microsoft, you don't have to like them or their products but they keep coming up with new products until they dominate a segment. In photography, they were humiliated by Nikon in the very late fifties with the F. They plotted a comeback for over ten years to release their F1, redesigned it shortly thereafter, redesigned it again a few years later to make it more appealing to consumers. All the while working on glass and optics to make better lenses. When challenged by autofocus, they were the only company to really look at what was coming and design a vehicle for the digital age(electronics). All the while they dominated the consumer side where the real money was with their Sure Shots ad nauseum and A every where line. I firmly believe that Kodak had (has) the best brains in research. Yet they keep stumbling due to bureaucratic meetingitis (disposables) or marketing failures (APS, photo CD, Ektar, 100 speed slide films always changing ...). I think the stock slide, this is purely speculation, is due to rumors of the dividend being cut. The joke in the industry is if it is March then Kodak is cutting another 10,000 employees in a one time cost cutting move. Kodak thought it was so wonderful when it captured the dominant market share for film in China over Fuji: then digital happened. What I would look for is an investment opportunity if some of the researchers ever broke away and formed their own company. If you want a stock that pays a good dividend, then look into Post Properties. They have been paying in the 9% range, just got out of a fairly bloody proxy battle with the prior chairman and dominate the upper middle apartment class in the SE US. Even though he lost the proxy battle, John Williams knows how to win in the apartment wars and is still involved with the company. Sort of like Dr Land still being around to guide his company. Don dorysrus@mindspring.com - -- To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html