Kodak faces perhaps the most precarious moment in its 120-year history. If all of this sounds like a digital death knell, bring it on, Dan Carp says. Digital means more picture-taking, whether they are health pictures, professional pictures or consumer pictures. And with that comes more and more output. Kodak trades at half to one-third of their earnings multiples.
Some investors see opportunity.
Yet Kodak's record doesn't inspire much confidence. George M.C. Fisher came from Motorola six and a half years ago, the first outsider ever to run the company. He was hailed as a technology visionary. The outsider spent much of his tenure defusing tension between the digital camp, which got all the attention, and the film camp, which was making all the money. In 1997, Kodak was blindsided by a price war with Fuji, which led to the layoffs of 19,000 people.