note: I wrote this in August 2011 when I was back in Rochester, but I never finalized the article. I figured with the news that they are definitely on the brink of reorganization, it was a good time to post.
This viral video by Nokia filmed with a Bruce Lee impersonator and some clever special effects. It shows “Bruce” using his nunchucks to set-alight matches that are being tossed at him. I want to believe that this is him. I love Bruce Lee.
Last week I’m in my hometown of Rochester, NY, the town which is the original home of entrepreneurship in the US. Kodak, Xerox, Bauch and Lomb and many other companies were created and prospered here. These days, Rochester is unfortunately not doing very well, and Kodak is definitely suffering.
Kodak had for so many years been the leader in imaging and thin-film technologies that a transition from analog imaging to digital imaging was never pushed forward as quickly (by a decade) as they should have. Many key digital patents expired well before Kodak introduced their first consumer cameras.
Recent news articles say that the current value of the Kodak patent portfolio could be worth five times more than their market cap. This may be due to the recent frothiness in the mobile market, but when you look at Kodak, what I don’t understand is that Kodak seems to have sold off the most valuable patents first, and they were sold-off too cheaply! Many of the important patents relating to digital imaging and CMOS technologies were sold for only $65MM? How are they going to get billions of dollars for the remaining patents? What technologies can they then invest-in to leverage those billions?
I can only shrug. So yes, it’s difficult running a company with huge pension liabilities, Kodak is never going to be as nimble as a startup, and while they have had many great engineers working in advanced imaging, material science and other advanced topics, the story here in Rochester is that they already fired their best engineers. This foray into inkjet technology has killed Kodak. The long-term deferred revenue and margins can only exist when people line-up to buy these printers in the first place. I want to believe that Kodak, one of the most well-known American brands will find success. I love Kodak. Unfortunately I know that Bruce Lee is dead, and Kodak may follow.
