Eastman Kodak Company

Identity area

Type of entity

Corporate body

Authorized form of name

Eastman Kodak Company

Parallel form(s) of name

    Standardized form(s) of name according to other rules

      Other form(s) of name

        Identifiers for corporate bodies

        Description area

        Dates of existence

        May 23, 1892 -

        History

        The Eastman Kodak Company (referred to simply as Kodak) is an American public company that produces various products related to its historic basis in analogue photography. George Eastman marketed the first commercial transparent roll film in 1889, and Kodak was founded by George Eastman and Henry A. Strong on May 23, 1892. During most of the 20th century, Kodak held a dominant position in photographic film. The company's ubiquity was such that its "Kodak moment" tagline entered the common lexicon to describe a personal event that deserved to be recorded for posterity. Kodak began to struggle financially in the late 1990s, as a result of the decline in sales of photographic film and its slowness in moving to digital photography, despite developing the first self-contained digital camera. As a part of a turnaround strategy, Kodak began to focus on digital photography and digital printing, and attempted to generate revenues through aggressive patent litigation. In January 2012, Kodak filed for bankruptcy protection in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York. Shortly thereafter, Kodak announced that it would stop making digital cameras, pocket video cameras, and digital picture frames and focus on the corporate digital imaging market. In August 2012, Kodak announced its intention to sell its photographic film, commercial scanners and kiosk operations, as a measure to emerge from bankruptcy, but not its motion picture film operations. In January 2013, the Court approved financing for Kodak to emerge from bankruptcy by mid 2013. Kodak sold many of its patents, and on September 3, 2013, the company emerged from bankruptcy having shed its large legacy liabilities and exited several businesses.

        Places

        Rochester, NY

        Legal status

        Functions, occupations and activities

        Photography
        Imaging
        Film

        Mandates/sources of authority

        Internal structures/genealogy

        General context

        Relationships area

        Access points area

        Subject access points

        Place access points

        Occupations

        Control area

        Authority record identifier

        US-NY-EAS-001

        Institution identifier

        Rules and/or conventions used

        RAD, July 2008 version. Canadian Council of Archives.

        Status

        Level of detail

        Dates of creation, revision and deletion

        Catalogued March 2022.

        Language(s)

          Script(s)

            Maintenance notes