Kodak posts quarterly loss, sets more job cuts (10,000 jobs)

[MadisonProgressive]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8639976/

This economy is really BOOMING!!

ROCHESTER, N.Y. - Eastman Kodak Co. said Wednesday it will cut as many as 10,000 jobs in addition to the 15,000 already announced as the photographic products company announced it swung to a loss in the second quarter from a year-ago profit.

Eastman Kodak’s quarterly loss totaled $146 million, or 51 cents per share, compared with earnings of $136 million, or 46 cents per share, a year ago. Revenue grew 6 percent to $3.69 billion from $3.46 billion last year.

Excluding restructuring charges, research and development costs and an asset impairment charge from an investment in Lucky Film, Kodak would have posted earnings from continuing operations of 53 cents per share in the latest quarter

[Gidney N Cloyd]

1. 'And we'll keep cutting jobs until...

the stuff we're not manufacturing much of anymore and nobody can afford anyway starts making money again!'

[Not Me]

2. The clincher is, they have top market share in amateur digital cam

markets (and have for three years)...and still can't make any money.
btw, every digital camera Kodak has ever sold is made offshore.

I worked for them for a long time...and truly believe they are toast.

Sad, actually.

[wallwriter]

3. On the bright side, Wal-Mart is hiring...

[fasttense]

4. 10,000 more people can now sign up for the new manufacturing industry

of McDonalds. Sure to get ahead making minimum wage. Just more wage slaves for the corporation to make money off of.

[rainbow4321]

6. Gates puzzled by computer science apathy

Has he not heard of OUTSOURCING? Why in the hell would students sign up for a profession to be in for a few years, only to get laid off or have their job outsourced???


http://customwire.ap.org/dynamic/stories/M/MICROSOFT_RESEARCH?SITE=TXSAE&SECTION=BUSINESS&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2005-07-19-12-24-22

Speaking to hundreds of university professors, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates says he's baffled more students don't go into computer science.

Gates said Monday that even if young people don't know that salaries and job openings in computer science are on the rise, they're hooked on so much technology - cell phones, digital music players, instant messaging, Internet browsing - that it's puzzling why more don't want to grow up to be programmers.

"It's such a paradox," Gates said. "If you say to a kid, 'Yeah, what are the 10 coolest products you use that your parents are clueless about, that you're good at using,' I don't think they're going to say, 'Oh, you know, it's this new breakfast cereal. And I want to go work in agriculture and invent new cereals or something.' ... I think 10 out of 10 would be things that are software-driven."

"How many fields can you get right out of college and define substantial aspects of a product that's going to go out and over 100 million people are going to use it?" Gates said. "We promise people when they come here to do programming ... they're going to have that opportunity, and yet we can't hire as many people as we'd like."

[Indy Lurker]

5. When was the last time you bought film?

It's been over 6 years for me.

Kodak is going the way of buggy-wip manufactures.

This is just a case of new technology driving out the old, not the victim of a bad economy.

[xxqqqzme]

7. bought film less than a month ago.

I use both.

[barb162]

9. me too

[Xithras]

11. Actually, even their film is subpar.

The problem is that Kodak is getting hit in both parts of the market. Aside from the disposables, amateurs have largely fled the film world already causing that market to shrink significantly. Your high end professionals, who can afford to drop several thousand dollars on a high end (10MP+) digital, have also stopped using film for the most part.

The remaining market for print and slide film is largely made up of "prosumers" in between those two groups. They want higher quality images than can be had from consumer-level digitals, but can't justify (or afford) dropping several grand to replace their equipment with their high end digital replacements.

Kodaks problem is that very few of these "prosumers" use Kodak film. Kodak has always made generic film for the masses, and has left large parts of the high end market to their competitors. From a business stance it made sense...they targeted the 80%+ of the market that just took snapshots and didn't worry about the rest. Now that their target market has evaporated, they're finding themselves in a very poor position to move into the high end market. Personally, I only shoot Fuji film (Provia, Sensia, Velvia) because it's light years ahead of Kodak quality-wise, and because a photo shot on Provia 100 can return the equivalent of a 22 megapixel image when digitized from the negative. The best I've EVER heard of anyone getting out of a Kodak film was 9 megapixel.

Kodak will die because their business model is dying...as you said, they're going the way of the buggy whip manufacturer. Even if they managed to move into the prosumer market in a bigger way, it's only a matter of time until the prices of higher end cameras become more affordable to the masses, at which time film will probably die out entirely (likely in the next 5-8 years).

[idlisambar]

13. it's both

GM, Ford, HP, Kodak, Boeing -- all are flagships of American industry, all make a living in tradable goods, and all are getting beaten into the ground by foreign competition. In any economic system individual companies can falter but this kind of broadbased weakness has deeper roots.

It is partly a case of new technology driving out the old, but that new technology is not coming from an American enterprise.

[xxqqqzme]

8. every time I see one of

'more jobs to be cut' headlines, I automatically wonder what the exec officers salaries & bennies package looks like. Why is THAT never part of one of these stories?

[mbperrin]

10. Woo-hoo! Look at that * job machine go!

There go some more jobs!!

Unemployment will probly fall next month to 4% or less!!!!


Man, is it hot in here or what????!!!

[cap]

12. this is a small town of people losing their jobs!

10K is a lot folks without income coming in.

[shantipriya]

14. Kodak Firings

Another proof (besides HP) that the economy is strong and growing!!!!

[mike923]

15. Or

Or people just aren't buying as much film as they used to.