Skip to main content

Digital Trends may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site. Why trust us?

Eastman Kodak cuts 425 jobs, says licensing of hardware played a role

Kodak Ektra
Julian Chokkattu/Digital Trends
The Eastman Kodak Company is laying off 425 people to help offset a $46 million loss. Kodak announced its third-quarter financial results on November 8, then followed up with news that its workforce will be cut by about 7 percent in order to remain on track to meet annual predictions. Kodak cited licensing, a segment of the company that allows other companies to manufacturer hardware such as the Ektra smartphone, as being among the reasons for the loss.

Other reasons include a lowered demand and higher costs for printing, the company’s largest segment. The company also said that brand licensing in the Consumer and Film division of the company also had an impact, along with struggles in the company’s 3D-printing division.

Related Videos

Around 100 of those layoffs will be in the company’s Rochester, New York, location; the company has around 6,000 employees globally. Eastman Kodak did not comment on what products may be affected by the staffing changes.

Kodak hasn’t had the easiest time after filing for bankruptcy in 2013. That bankruptcy resulted in the creation of Eastman Kodak and the separate company Kodak Alaris. Eastman Kodak makes print system and inkjet printers along, as well as works in the 3D printing technology software, fields. It also works with other companies to license the Kodak name. Kodak’s licensing resulted in the Kodak Ektra and a Kodak tablet, hardware manufactured by third-party companies. Eastman Kodak also still manufacturers motion picture film, but not film for still images.

Kodak Alaris is a separate company responsible for continuing the company’s film and paper products, which means film sales aren’t likely to be affected by the Eastman Kodak layoffs, though some types that are related to cinema film production could be potentially be affected.

Kodak has seen the most growth from two different types of process plates and increased revenue for the Prosper Inkjet line. Despite the $46 million loss in the third quarter, the company is still expecting to meet its prediction of $1.5 to $1.6 billion in annual revenue. During the same time last year, the company instead posted $12 million in net earnings.

“We expect to generate cash in the fourth quarter of 2017,” David Bullwinkle, the company’s chief financial officer, said in a press release. “We plan to improve our cash balance through reducing working capital and through cost actions including focusing investments in technologies most likely to deliver near-term returns.”

Editors' Recommendations

ChatGPT is coming to Snapchat to be your new AI BFF
ChatGPT-powered My AI chatbot running in the Snapchat app.

Snapchat is best known as a popular social media app for sending photos/videos to friends and watching bad reality shows. But starting today, Snapchat also wants to be your go-to destination for ChatGPT. Yes, that's right — the same ChatGPT technology that caused Bing Chat to declare it wanted to be human.

Per an announcement on the Snapchat Newsroom website, ChatGPT is coming to the Snapchat app in the form of the "My AI" chatbot. My AI will appear in the Snapchat app just like any of your other friends. You'll find My AI on the Chat page, you can view its profile, look at its avatar, etc. At a glance, My AI looks like any of your other Snapchat friends.
My AI brings ChatGPT to Snapchat

Read more
SMS 2FA is insecure and bad — use these 5 great authenticator apps instead
Twilio Authy 2FA app running on an iPhone.

You probably have what seems like a million accounts across the internet these days, right? At least, that’s what it feels like for me — with all these social media, email, and banking accounts, plus digital storefronts, and more. Regardless of where I access these from, whether it’s my iPhone 14 Pro or my Samsung Galaxy S23 Plus, or even my Mac, the first step is to make sure that I have a strong and secure (preferably randomly generated) password. But for extra peace of mind, everyone needs to look into two-factor authentication (2FA) to really keep people out.

Recently, Twitter has made the news yet again because it’s forcing everyone who uses SMS 2FA to either remove it from their account or subscribe to Twitter Blue to keep it. SMS 2FA is when you get a code sent as an SMS to your phone, and while it's convenient, this is the least secure 2FA method available. SMS 2FA is susceptible to numerous vulnerabilities, including SIM swapping (where someone takes over a mobile phone number by convincing a carrier to link that number with the SIM card), SIM duplication attacks, and more.

Read more
Outlook users express alarm as inboxes flood with spam
Microsoft Outlook app landing page.

It wasn’t just the American people who took off Presidents' Day on Monday. Microsoft’s Outlook spam filters also took a break, judging by the number of complaints from people left wading through an unusually high number of junk emails that had escaped the filtering process and ended up in their inboxes.

The web version of Microsoft’s Outlook email service, formerly known as Hotmail, appeared to begin malfunctioning early on Monday when people’s inboxes began filling up with spam instead of it going straight to the junk folder as would normally happen.

Read more