Eastman Kodak (Rochester, NY, USA) and its US subsidiaries have filed voluntary petitions for Chapter 11 business reorganization in the US Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York.
Kodak has obtained a $950 million debtor-in-possession credit facility with an 18-month maturity from Citigroup to enhance its liquidity and working capital. The company believes that it has sufficient liquidity to operate its business during Chapter 11, and to continue the flow of goods and services to its customers.
Kodak said that it expects to pay employee wages and benefits and continue customer programs. Subsidiaries outside of the US are not subject to the proceedings and will honor all obligations to suppliers.
“At the same time as we have created our digital business, we have also already effectively exited certain traditional operations, closing 13 manufacturing plants and 130 processing labs, and reducing our workforce by 47,000 since 2003. Now we must further address our cost structure and effectively monetizing non-core IP assets,” said Antonio M. Perez, chairman and CEO.
Kodak will be filing monthly operating reports with the Bankruptcy Court and also plans to post these monthly operating reports on the investor relations section of Kodak.com. The company will continue to file quarterly and annual reports with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which will also be available in the investor relations section of Kodak.com.
Last week, the company filed lawsuits against both Samsung Electronics and Fujifilm, alleging infringement of certain patents related to Kodak digital imaging technology. The complaints, filed in US District Court for the Western District of New York, allege that certain Samsung tablets and Fujifilm digital cameras infringe patented Kodak digital imaging technology.
The announcement comes hard on the heels of news earlier this month that the company had filed lawsuits against Apple and HTC Corp., also alleging the infringement of certain Kodak patents relating to digital imaging technology.
Kodak expects to complete its US-based restructuring during 2013.
-- By Dave Wilson, Senior Editor, Vision Systems Design
