Tech & Biz

Kodak files for bankruptcy

by liamssoft | January 19, 2012 at 02:14 am

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Eastman Kodak Co, which invented the hand-held camera and helped bring the world the first pictures from the moon, has filed for bankruptcy protection, capping a prolonged plunge for one of America's best-known companies.

The more than 130-year-old photographic film pioneer, which had tried to restructure to become a seller of consumer products like cameras, said it had also obtained a $950 million, 18-month credit facility from Citigroup to keep it going.

The loan and bankruptcy protection from US trade creditors may give Kodak the time it needs to find buyers for some of its 1,100 digital patents, the key to its remaining value, and to reshape its business while continuing to pay its 17,000 workers.

Many of its pensioners are in the UK where Kodak has been manufacturing since 1891. The company had promised to inject $800 million over the next decade into its UK pension fund. It remains unclear how the UK pension regulator might seek to preserve the company's obligations to pensioners here.

www.thisislondon.co.uk