This will become very difficult for the nearly bankrupt company, that
quadrupled its quarterly loss to $ 222 million (€ 170 million) in last
year’s third quarter. In November, Eastman Kodak warned it might not
survive the year if it did not find half a billion dollars by selling debts – or patents.
The Eastman Kodak story reads like a painful example of the Law of the
handicap of a head start: Kodak used to be so big, that ‘kodak’ was
synonymous for ‘camera’ – in some parts of the worlds, it still is. The
company thought however that it was so big that it could keep its
position of market leader comfortably, because “Americans would not
desert their favourite brands”.
How Eastman Kodak was wrong: in not sponsoring the Olympic Games of
1996, it gave Japanese competitors Fuji a first, easy stepping stone
towards the American market. In just fifteen years, Fuji became the
market leader in the US, while Eastman Kodak – as it missed out on the
digital revolution – lost 99.5% of its share value. In 1997, Eastman
Kodak’s shares were still worth $90; yesterday it closed at 47 cent. The
company has been on Wall street since April 1905.
