Eastman Kodak Company (EK)

Film is dying and they have already sold off the majority of their profitable businesses to ITT, J&J, Hidelberg, Carestream, Kodak Chemical, & others including pharmacuticals. Also, film no longer has the 50+ % profit margin that it had in it's hey day. When movie theaters go all digital there won't be enough demand left to continue coating film at all. The technology is there now, but it is not economical for theater owners to invest that much to go digital. The producing/distributing companies make/risk most of the profits while the theaters are left with the concessions (popcorn) as their profit centers.

Contrary to popular opinion, Kodak pioneered digital photography (largely with space/government applications). However, they were faced with a deadly dilemma. Pioneering and promoting consumer and commercial digital photography would shorten the life of their cash cow (the world leading film) and allow others to quickly build on their technology. Continuing to promote film for these applications would allow others to have a major foothold in the new field while the film business tapered down. They chose/defaulted to the latter.

Kodak still has some great research but has not demonstrated the ability to bring any of it to market so they are not using the Kodak Brand franchise for any benefit. In fact even research has recently been crippled by outsourcing and laying off machinists and model makers. The scientists/engineers and others are not allowed to use drill presses, milling machines, etc. so much effort is dead in the water.

Kodak built it's name and Brand thru marketing but they don't have any the marketers left and far less capability. They reported that they tore down and imploded 200 buildings (many very large and modern) last year to get them off the tax roles as well as selling off a very large manufacturing complex about 5 years ago. This is a long way from the company that was part of the Dow 20. They used to increase dividends regularly, finance research and new products from earnings, pay a wage dividend to employees based on earnings and carried no debt. They are trying hard to be a very lean efficient company but they still have some of the responsibilities of their former structure and have yet to find a way to materially cash in on what was once rated the top Brand name in the USA.