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Kodak Announces Patent Sale

Kodak announced in late December that it has successfully sold its patent portfolio for US$525 million to a consortium led by Intellectual Ventures.

“This monetization of patents is another major milestone toward successful emergence,” Antonio Perez, Kodak’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, said. “Our progress has accelerated over the past several weeks as we prepare to emerge as a strong, sustainable company. This proposed transaction enables Kodak to repay a substantial amount of our initial DIP loan, satisfy a key condition for our new financing facility, and position our Commercial Imaging business for further growth and success.”

Kodak’s sale of these patents were a key condition to it obtaining financing worth US$793 million from bondholders. The patent sale had been announced in February 2012, but elicited little interest. Kodak originally valued the patents at between $2.2 and $2.6 billion.

The consortium purchasing the patents include major tech players such as Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Apple, Samsung, RIM, HTC, Fujifilm, Huawei, Amazon, and Shutterfly. As a result of this deal, Kodak agrees to drop patent cases against the purchasing companies, the most notable of which was a $1 billion suit against Apple last year.

After the sale of these 1,100 digital imaging patents, Eastman Kodak still retains over 9,600 patents in other business areas.