Boston, MA 04/16/2013 (wallstreetpr) – The now bankrupt photography pioneering company, Eastman Kodak Company (PINK:EKDKQ) (Closed: $0.299, Down by 0.66%) has agreed to sell its document-imaging assets to BROTHER INDUSTRIES, LTD (TYO:6448) (Closed: 1071.00 JPY, Down by 1.74%), the office equipment company for an amount of around $210 million which is not the set minimum bid for the auction. In a statement, the companies have said that any deal will necessitate the approval of the judge who is overseeing the New York-based company’s bankruptcy case. Around $67 million worth of customer repayment liabilities are also included in the Nagoya, Japan –based Brother’s bid.
Divesting its businesses
In January 2011, Kodak sought Chapter 11 protection and is now selling its businesses in an effort to downsize and also fund its move into commercial packaging and printing. In December, Antonio Perez, the Chief Executive Officer sold a few of the company’s digital imaging patents for around $525 million and is now looking for prospective buyers for Kodak’s photo-kiosks and consumer films divisions. He will also be downing shutters on the consumer inkjet-printer unit. Under a financial agreement, the company has to make good progress with selling its various business units to raise cash. This will help it move out of bankruptcy status in the first half of 2013.
The bankruptcy
Kodak said that once the sales procedures have received approval, an initial bidder auction procedure will be run with Brother. Brother deals in fax and printer machines and the Kodak deal will add image capture services, scanners as well as technical services to the company. An increase in the demand for digital photography ate into Kodak’s film business and the company eventually had to file for bankruptcy after several years of using up its cash reserves. Last year, the company had also cut close to 4,000 jobs and gone through $3.4 worth of restructuring procedures before its bankruptcy.
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