ROCHESTER, NY—Former film giant Eastman Kodak has filed for bankruptcy protection, according to a story in the New York Times today.
Citigroup is reportedly providing Kodak $950 million in financing to allow the company to continue operating through the bankruptcy. Kodak is looking to sell off its 1,100 digital patents in the meantime.
“Kodak is taking a significant step toward enabling our enterprise to complete its transformation,” said Antonio Perez, chairman and chief executive officer, in a news release on the company's website. “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 complete the transformation by further addressing our cost structure and effectively monetizing non-core IP assets. We look forward to working with our stakeholders to emerge a lean, world-class, digital imaging and materials science company.”