Continuing their own dismantling in an effort to become a smaller, nimbler, and – hopefully – more profitable company, Kodak has agreed to sell their document printing assets to Brother for about $210 million, according to a report in Bloomberg.
Kodak, which went into Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in January 2012, has been shedding business units to focus on commercial printing and packaging. As part of the acquisition of Kodak’s Document Imaging business, Brother would add scanners (like the i4200 shown above and below), image-capture software, and technical services to their product roster; Brother, which makes laser, label, and multifunction printers, fax machines, and sewing machines, would also assume Kodak’s $67 million of customer prepayment liabilities. The Document Imaging business caters mostly to office- and enterprise-level customers.
The company has already sold off some digital-imaging patents last December, and is looking for someone to buy the consumer film and photo kiosks divisions. Kodak will shut down the consumer inkjet printer division.
The sale, which is subject to court approval and could be outbid by another suitor, is part of an effort by Kodak to raise enough cash to exit bankruptcy sometime this year. It’s another sad tale from a company that was once the vanguard in imaging. According to Bloomberg, Kodak cut 4,000 jobs in 2012 and spent $3.4 billion on restructuring.
(Images via Kodak)
