Cutting the cake at a wedding has become known as a favorite Kodak moment, the time to take a special picture. The wedding cake is still being cut, but you may need to find a new name for the special moment when the bride and groom exchange cake.
When you watch the Oscars this year, It won’t be held at the Kodak Theater in Hollywood. It’s the same facility, but the name has been changed.
The once-dominant photography company has run into very hard times. Eastman Kodak recently filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and, among its reorganization plans, is a request from the Court to dissolve the $4 million per year contract for naming rights to the theater.
Eastman Kodak, founded in 1880, has been struggling for years to adapt to an increasingly digital world. Kodak has tried a number of turnaround strategies and cost-cutting efforts, but the company has only shown one full year of profit since 2004. Kodak will continue to operate during the bankruptcy case in an effort to upgrade its digital division.
Kodak established the market for camera film and then dominated the field. The onset of digital photography eroded demand for traditional film, squeezing Kodak’s business so much that in 2003 the company said that it would halt investing in its longtime product.
Kodak is also stepping up its production of commercial and inkjet printers. Kodak plans to increase its share of the consumer inkjet printer market by designing cheaper replacement cartridges. The company is looking to dominate commercial printing of magazines, books, newspapers and advertising with high volume inkjet machines that are faster and digitally flexible, to deliver smaller and more customized batches cheaper than old-tech presses and plates as the world moves toward on-demand publishing.
As digital dissolved its film business, Kodak has furloughed 47,000 employees since 2003 and closed 13 factories that produced film, paper and chemicals, along with 130 photo laboratories.