ATDL

Eastman Kodak Co. and its U.S. subsidiaries filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection today in a New York Bankruptcy Court.

The company said it has obtained a $950 million debtor-in-possession credit facility with an 18-month maturity from Citigroup to keep it going. The loan is subject to court approval and other conditions.

Facing increasing cash flow problems, Kodak, whose Graphics Division supplies imaging equipment and consumables to the newspaper industry, will use the 18 months to find buyers for some of its 1,100 digital patents.

"Kodak is taking a significant step toward enabling our enterprise to complete its transformation," said Antonio M. Perez, chairman and CEO in a company-issued press release. "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."

Kodak said it expects to pay employee wages and benefits and continue customer programs. Subsidiaries outside of the United States are not subject to the filing and will honor all obligations to suppliers. Kodak and its U.S. subsidiaries, meantime, will honor all post-petition obligations to suppliers, the company said.

"Chapter 11 gives us the best opportunities to maximize the value in two critical parts of our technology portfolio: our digital capture patents, which are essential for a wide range of mobile and other consumer electronic devices that capture digital images and have generated over $3 billion of licensing revenues since 2003; and our breakthrough printing and deposition technologies, which give Kodak a competitive advantage in our growing digital businesses," Perez said.

Kodak said expects to complete its U.S.-based restructuring during 2013.

http://www.newsandtech.com/dateline/article_4c75ab9a-42b9-11e1-87fa-001871e3ce6c.html