NEW YORK: Its legacy spans 13 decades, and boasts many American firsts, but Eastman Kodak, best known for cameras and photography, maybe running out of options and time.
Although Kodak said it has "no intention" of filing for bankruptcy, the fact that its shares closed under $1, and market capitalization shrank to less than $300 million suggests that even the most die-hard investors may have lost faith.
Kodak has been an iconic name in American business. The company's history stretches back to inventor George Eastman's Eastman Dry Plate Company in 1881. By 1885 he had introduced the the first transparent photographic film. The "Kodak" camera hit the market in 1888, with the slogan, "You press the button - we do the rest."
Nearly a century later -- 1981 -- its sales topped $10 billion. It even got in early to the digital camera movement, with its Professional Digital Camera System in 1991 that enabled photojournalists to take an electronic picture with a camera equipped with Kodak's 1.3 megapixel sensor.
But some say that was already too late, since consumers had become enamored with the ease of digital cameras, which allowed then to snap hundreds of photos without film or the need to make prints.
Today, most snapshots are taken with phones and viewed on Facebook, and its tough to remember when Kodak's brand was stronger than that of the social media site. Most iPhone-toting teens have never purchased a roll of film, and have no interest in carting around a stand-alone camera.
