Kodak to sell imaging units, focus on printing

Kodak wants to sell its document imaging and personalized imaging businesses to better focus on printing and business services as it tries to emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

Eastman Kodak Co. said Thursday that the sale of the units, along with cost-cutting measures and the auction of its patent portfolio, will help it emerge from bankruptcy sometime in 2013.

Kodak's document-imaging division makes scanners and offers related software and services. The personalized imaging business includes photo paper and still-camera film products. It also offers souvenir photo products at theme parks and other venues.

Antonio Perez, Kodak's chairman and CEO, said the planned sale is "an important step in our company's reorganization to focus our business on the commercial markets."

The storied photography pioneer filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in January. It has kept operating while it tries to sell its digital imaging patents. So far, it has not found buyers.

Rochester, N.Y. based Kodak was founded in 1880. Kodak introduced the iconic Brownie camera in 1900. Selling for $1 and using film that cost just 15 cents a roll, it made hobby photography affordable for many people. Its Kodachrome film, introduced in 1935, became the first commercially successful amateur color film.

Kodak's workforce peaked in 1988 at nearly 150,000 employees. But the company couldn't keep up with the shift from digital photo technology over the past decade and with competition from Japanese companies such as Canon.

It said earlier this year that it would stop making digital cameras, pocket video cameras and digital picture frames as it tries to reshape its business.