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by myrmidon 309 days ago
One important point I think is that Kodak, at its core, was a huge company specialized in photography related chemistry.

Not easy to turn a company around when the knowledge/qualifications/experience of most of your employees becomes almost worthless.

Thats also what made it easier for others (like Corning) to pivot (presumably).

2 comments

Kodak spun off the chemical business as Eastman Chemical Company in 1994, seven years before the main film business went into permanent decline:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastman_Chemical_Company

Eastman Chemical Company is still doing fine.

Fujifilm recognized that they were a chemistry company and partially pivoted to cosmetics.
There's a good, short 2012 Economist piece on how Fuji recognized its underlying strengths (chemistry company) better than Kodak, and made that part of their strategy since they recognized digital photography would not last.

https://archive.is/20250424104926/https://www.economist.com/...

They also make cell culture material for bio labs: https://fujifilmbiosciences.fujifilm.com/us