Tagged: kodak

Kodak filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy a year ago. The intervening months have seen big layoffs, pay freezes for workers, and an end to benefits for many of the company's retirees. However, Kodak also secured an extra $830 million in funding, and sold its patent portfolio.

Kodak is set to sell its coal-fired power plant at Eastman Business Park to a company that will convert it to a cleaner, natural gas facility.

Kodak has reached an agreement for the sale of their digital patent portfolio. Under the agreement, the company will receive $525 million for the imaging patents from Intellectual Ventures, a major holder of US patents, and a group of 12 licensees.

Kodak is selling 11,000 digital patents in a silent auction in Manhattan beginning today. The company is hoping to use the proceeds to pay off some of its creditors.

The Wall Street Journal reports technology giants Google and Apple are both bidding, but the initial offers are much lower than the estimated $2.6 billion Kodak says the patents are worth.

With Kodak embarking on a restructuring effort under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, the future of the imaging icon remains unclear.

But one aspect of Kodak's legacy is already deeply imprinted onto the Rochester community.

Even as Rochester's most famous company struggled mightily to reinvent itself, the Rochester region steadily fought back - leading the state in job growth in recent years and outpacing its upstate peers in economic vitality.

One key reason: A long history of top-notch human capital flung into the community - willingly or not - as Kodak's fortunes withered.