What happened to Kodak?

During business courses, we look at case studies identifying strategy seeking to establish a cause and effect, the question arose, what happened to Kodak?

As we know, Kodak was the world's leading photographic film producer, an iconic global company brandishing a solid reputation before seeking Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the United States in early 2012. At the height of Kodak's dominance in the mid 70s; the company held a 90% market share in the United States as well as worldwide market leadership. Eastman Kodak's main business divisions now include digital printing, graphics, entertainment and commercial film technology, but what happened?

Major rival, Japanese based FujiFilm is not only still operating, the company is actively engaged in the digital photography business. The digital camera market is highly competitive; dominated by the traditional camera manufacturers of Nikon, Canon and Olympus; newer entrants of Lumix, Sony and former competitor FujiFilm add further competitive pressure. Who really uses a Pentax camera anymore?

The modern smartphone boasts an impressive camera and editing options for Samsung, iPhone, Blackberry, HTC and Sony users. Whilst the high quality DSLR will not be replaced for serious photographers anytime soon; both the compact and point & shoot camera market face stiff competition from mobile phone handsets.

Financially struggling throughout 1990s, the severe decline in sales of photographic film coupled with delays transitioning to digital photography technology caused severe financial duress for Kodak. Despite inventing core digital camera technology; Eastman Kodak failed to take advantage of its dominant position rapidly losing market share and revenue - profits diminished quickly.

Nokia is an example of a market leader with a dominant position rapidly losing market share and plunging revenues through slow rollout of technology due to technical issues, Microsoft beat Apple to market setting Apple's development back years. Microsoft bought out the faltering Nokia handset and smartphone business and has now been eclipsed by Apple.

Early in 2013, court approval was granted allowing refinancing; Eastman Kodak emerged from bankruptcy in mid-2013. Eastman Kodak proceeded to sell numerous patents to competitors including market leaders Samsung, Microsoft, Facebook, Google, Apple, Amazon, HTC and Adobe Systems after attempting to generate revenues through somewhat aggressive patent litigation.

The revitalised strategy now involves Eastman Kodak focusing solely on digital photography and digital printing. During 2012, Eastman Kodak announced the company would no longer manufacture digital cameras, video cameras and digital picture frames, instead focusing on the targeted niche of the corporate digital imaging market.

During 2012, Eastman Kodak announced the sale of photographic film, with the exclusion motion picture film technology, their kiosk operations and commercial scanners to emerge from chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

Kodak still exists as a company; however, the restructure saw the company slip from a consumer based enterprise to a business focusing on corporate clients. Will Eastman Kodak under the revamped strategy continue into the future, or will the sale of intellectual property undermine future earnings?