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Not many people remember, but it wasn't that long ago that Kodak was "pivoting to crypto": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KodakCoin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki
by xenotux 1y ago
Not many people remember, but it wasn't that long ago that Kodak was "pivoting to crypto": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KodakCoin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KodakCoin
At that point, it was pretty clear that they're on borrowed time. I'm surprised they had enough runway / credit to make it to 2025.
- mont_tag 1y agoCrypto did pretty well during that timeframe. Likely, they didn't pivot hard enough to offset losses to the core business.
- BoorishBears 1y agoCryptocurrency did well, anyone who built things assuming crypto-related tech would do well lost their shirt.
- DANmode 1y agoDecent framing of the issue, here.
- hoppp 1y agoCrypto is pretty much just about buying btc or now eth But the projects built on it are all questionable and only make money for the builders who slowly rug them
- canucker2016 1y agoworked well for Microstrategy (MSTR). Look at the 5 year or all-time chart for MSTR - https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/MSTR/ https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/MSTR/ Not sure how they realize all those gains tho, or what happens to the stock price when they try to exit in a substantial manner.
- greiskul 1y agoAnd what projects do they have besides buying BTC like the parent comment mentioned? What tech have they built? And yeah, BTC went up huge amounts, but certainly they were a large part of the buying pressure to get it there. But like you asked, how do they realize anything? Unless they get US government to start buying and shift their bags to the US tax payer, how do they do anything with their BTC? Besides using it as collateral to borrow even more money to inflate a even higher bubble?
- cowsandmilk 1y agoI would hardly describe a brand licensing agreement as a pivot of the company. A true pivot of Kodak was moving from just doing chemicals for film to doing chemicals for the pharmaceutical industry. That actually involved employees changing what they do, changing factory equipment, etc.
- vintermann 1y agoWhen the brand is your main asset, licensing it to a scam is pretty bad.
- rubidium 1y agoFujifilm succeeded at it (before Kodak tried). Interesting case study between the two companies.
- pfdietz 1y agoDidn't Kodak sell off Eastman Chemical long before the first bankruptcy?
- bravesoul2 1y agoInteresting idea. Rather than the tired "they missed digital photography"... they could have seen it coming and pivoted to something where the experience transfers.
- dotancohen 1y agoKodak _invented_ digital photography.
- SturgeonsLaw 1y agoAnd then shelved it, fearing that it would cannibalise their film sales
- actionfromafar 1y agoAnd then was a leader in digital sensors. But film sales collapsed basically overnight, not in a slower slope as projected. Kodak mgmt wasn't crazy or anything like that.
- BLKNSLVR 1y agoGiven that bitcoin just hit another all time high, I'm not sure how apt your analysis is. Having said that, more of the cryptocurrency industry is scams than not - but then that also wouldn't necessarily exclude them from profitability...
- bawolff 1y agoKodakCoin is still a stupid idea no matter how well bitcoin might be doing. The price of bitcoin being high does not mean your weird altcoin is a good investment. That would be like saying that because USD exchange rate is up it means every usa business is a good investment.
- lenkite 1y agoWhy didn't Kodak pivot to making smartphones ? As soon as the iPhone reveal happened, any sane executive would have realized that this is what they would need to do.
- vasco 1y agoYeah, and why not spaceships too.
- lenkite 1y agoSpaceships do not form the critical part of a functional smartphone. Cameras do.
- pjerem 1y agoKodak had no specialization into cameras, only into camera films, let alone digital cameras. There are actually few good digital camera manufacturers in the world. Most high end camera in smartphone are from Sony or Samsung who were already specialized in electronics way before the digital camera / smartphone era.
- devnullbrain 1y agoRed tried the same without success. I'm not convinced the differentiators for photography consumers are the same as the differentiators of cameras for smartphone consumers.
- jamal-kumar 1y agoNot only that, they really dropped the ball on photolithography for making chips https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KPR https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KPR
- triceratops 1y agoThey should've started in the late-90s for that. And it wasn't obvious then that cameras and phones would go together so well.
- 1y ago
- cm2187 1y agoMy first digital camera was a Kodak camera in 2001. Not saying that crypto was the right decision, but digital cameras definitely were. It seems they were self-conscious, but incapable of executing.
- brianwawok 1y agoIs that a surprise? A chemical company doesn't have the in house chops to build a tech hardware? Same things happens all over. Ford (a car company) completely failing to make a reasonable UI / App / Interface for their infotainment systems (something a tech company would do). Pivoting away from what you are good at is hard for a 3 person startup, but nearly impossible for a giant corporation.
- cm2187 1y agoWell they had a good start, I don't think the early Kodak digital cameras were particularly bad, and they were rather cheap. But it looks like they didn't build on it.