Kodak Files for U.S. Bankruptcy Protection

Eastman Kodak Co., which invented the hand-held camera and helped bring the world the first pictures from the moon, has on early Thursday morning filed for bankruptcy protection, capping a prolonged plunge for what remains one of America’s best-known companies.

The 131-year-old photographic film pioneer, which had tried to restructure to become a seller of consumer products like cameras, said it had also obtained a US$ 950-million, 18-month credit facility from Citigroup to keep it going.

Kodak said that it and its U.S. subsidiaries had filed for Chapter 11 business reorganization in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York. Non-U.S. subsidiaries were not covered by the filing, it added.

“The board of directors and the entire senior management team unanimously believe that this is a necessary step and the right thing to do for the future of Kodak,” chairman and chief executive Antonio M. Perez said in a statement quoted by theglobeandmail.com.

In recent years, Mr. Perez has steered Kodak’s focus more toward consumer and commercial printers. But that failed to restore annual profitability, something Kodak has not seen since 2007, or arrest a cash drain that has made it difficult for Kodak to meet its substantial pension and other benefits obligations to its workers and retirees.

Its downfall has already hit its Rust Belt hometown of Rochester, New York, with employment there falling to about 7,000 from more than 60,000 in Kodak’s halcyon days.