10 January 2007
Eastman Kodak Co., Rochester, N.Y., announced several steps being taking to streamline operations within its Film and Photofinishing Systems Group (FPG). Mary Jane Hellyar, president of FPG and senior vice president, Eastman Kodak Co., will assume the added responsibility of president, Entertainment Imaging (EI), effective Jan. 8, 2007.
In addition to this leadership change, the Paper and Output Systems, Photo Services, and Service and Support units will move from FPG to the Retail Printing business unit within the company's Consumer Digital Group, effective Jan. 1, 2007. This move will concentrate FPG's portfolio exclusively on film-related businesses, as well as the digital cinema and services businesses within EI. These changes were outlined in PMA Newsline on Nov. 1.
The group will be composed of three core businesses: Entertainment Imaging, which serves the motion picture industry; Film Capture, which sells consumer and professional films and one-time-use cameras; Aerial and Industrial Markets, which sells specialty films. In line with this, the group will be renamed the Film Products Group effective Jan. 1, 2007.
In separate news, Kodak said it will soon comment on the fate of its Health Imaging unit, amid concerns the photography company may not be able to sell the division at a good price, or at all, reports Reuters. Kodak, after years of trying to compete in the high-tech health imaging market, said in May it was mulling the future of the unit, which includes X-ray film, medical printers, and information management software and storage systems.
In October, Kodak Chief Executive Antonio Perez said he would make an announcement before the end of the year about the business, which competes with General Electric Co.'s Healthcare, Siemens AG and Philips Electronics NV, as well as Belgium's Agfa-Gevaert.
"He has made the commitment to update people by the end of the year and he will be updating," a Kodak spokesman said on Wednesday to Reuters, noting that he had nothing further to add about the nature of Perez's comments.
Kodak has shed little light on its plans for the unit, but analysts have been speculating on whether it will sell the business whole for up to $2 billion, or dismantle and resell it in pieces, or perhaps postpone the deal, reports Reuters.
Kodak is nearing the end of a long, expensive shift away from its film business toward digital products and services. While its Health unit has a digital element, its profits have slipped; many experts say other players were quicker to market with more innovative health technology.
In May, Kodak hired Goldman Sachs & Co. to advise it in the process of considering options, including a sale. Kodak is expected to address investors directly in February at its first analyst meeting in more than a year, reports Reuters.