[Leica] Konica Minolta to quit photo market - now Kodak staying in film

[rhaightjr at yahoo.com (Bob Haight)]

Seth, Kodak wants to stay in film, to be sure, but I
doubt they can or will, if it becomes too unprofitable
to do it. The latest announcements I have read from
them indicate film sales are declining much faster
than they ever could have predicted. Continuation of
that sharp down trend may make production of film
simply impossible for Kodak. Too bad for all of us.
Bob Haight

--- Seth Rosner <sethrosner@nycap.rr.com> wrote:

> Don Dory wrote:
> 
> "Kodak is run largely by a group of executives that
> grew up when Kodak did 
> control the market and they can not seem to break
> out of that mindset."
> 
> Don, you could not be more wrong. Kodak today is run
> by Chairman and Chief 
> Executive Officer Antonio Perez who came to Kodak as
> Chief Operating Officer 
> almost three years ago from a 25 year career with
> Hewlett Packard. His 
> entire background is digital.
> 
> Perez' immediate predecessor as CEO was Daniel Carp
> who joined Kodak in that 
> capacity in 1999. From Motorola, if memory serves me
> well. Robert Brust, 
> Chief Financial Officer, came to Kodak six years ago
> from Unisys 
> Corporation, a global information service &
> technology company and before 
> that was a lifer at General Electric.
> 
> Inasmuch as over seven years ago the Kodak Board had
> already identified the 
> impending shift to digital and an inevitable decline
> in world-wide film 
> sales, Carp was hired precisely to carry out the
> implementation of an 
> enormous effort to expand Kodak's digital and other
> businesses (e.g. health 
> and dental care) to a point where digital and other
> business sales would 
> compensate for the silver halide decline.
> 
> Having served as a deck offficer on U.S.S. Intrepid
> and stood thousands of 
> hours on watch as an OOD underway, I know first hand
> about kinetic inertia 
> and the energy required and the slow reaction time
> to turn an aircraft 
> carrier. Turning a goliath like Kodak in a new
> direction without capsizing 
> the ship - i.e. going bankrupt - is analagous.
> 
> At my request Kodak sent representatives to the last
> two LHSA annual 
> meetings ('04 & '05). Both made very thorough,
> interesting and persuasive 
> presentations describing Kodak's efforts and plans
> in digital and film 
> technology. Of course they acknowledged the decline
> in film sales but 
> emphasized that Kodak was not leaving the film
> business and, in fact, showed 
> newly developed film emulsions. They also donated
> five rolls of film, two 
> color (slide and negative), two b+w (Tri-X and
> 400TCN - not sure I have the 
> current nomenclature but yuou know which I mean) and
> a roll of infra-red 
> film, for each LHSA member attending. That's 750
> rolls of film. And please 
> don't tell me they gave it away because they can't
> sell it!   ;-)
> 
> Is Kodak going digital? Of course. They want the
> Company to stay in 
> business. Are they quitting film. In my jaundiced
> opinion, not in your 
> lifetime, may it be long and full of health.
> 
> It may be convenient and even feel good to beat up
> on the old yellow box. 
> But get the facts straight and stop indulging in
> myth. Interested Luggers 
> should take a look at Kodak's website, click on
> corporate/investor 
> center/executive biographies and see the actual
> backgrounds of the people 
> who are running Kodak today. Including how many are
> responsible for film as 
> well as digital.
> 
> Respectfully,
> 
> Seth 
> 
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Leica Users Group.
> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for
> more information
> 


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