Kodak To Cut 1,000 More Jobs To Save $330 Million
The ailing Eastman Kodak will be required to cut more jobs, the company said today in a statement.
By the end of the year, Kodak expects to reduce its workforce by 1,000 more employees, saving the company about $330 million in salary and benefits. Kodak has already laid off 2,700 employees from its workforce since the beginning of this year.
“We recognize that we must significantly and expeditiously reduce our current cost structure, which is designed for a much larger, more diversified set of businesses,” Kodak chairman and CEO Antonio Perez said today in a statement.
Kodak didn’t necessarily leave out the possibility of more cuts. In fact, the company said that it’s continuing to analyze “further operational and workforce reductions.”
When this year is finished, it’ll be seen as the 12-month period where Kodak gutted its business and became a vastly different company. Back in February, the company announced that it was phasing out its digital cameras business – an industry it helped create — and would focus on licensing its patents. Last month, Kodak announced that it was selling its print film business to raise cash.
Kodak earlier this year filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Since then, it has been anxiously trying to raise cash to emerge a more agile company. A key component in that has been the sale of Kodak’s digital-imaging patents. The company had hoped to raise about $2.5 billion in the sale, but reportedly received bids of that were substantially lower. In a statement to CNET last month, Kodak indicated that it might not sell its patents, after all.
Aside from its layoffs, Kodak said today that its president, Philip Faraci, is leaving the company. Kodak’s CFO Antoinette McCorvey is also leaving. The company will also report three distinct business segments, Digital Printing and Enterprise; Graphics, Entertainment and Commercial Films; and Personalized Imaging and Document Imaging. The last division is made up of the two businesses Kodak plans to sell.
via CNET
