Who does not have a pile of photographs printed on that shiny card in a drawer or old box, with the red and yellow logo on the back? For generations, Kodak is synonymous with memory, the snapshot of a birthday, a holiday, a happy moment. Today, that giant who made photography “comfortable as the pencil”, as his founder George Eastman promised, risks writing the word “fine” on his incredible story.
The news, arrived like a lightning bolt for many for many, is contained in an official note from the company: there are “substantial doubts” about the company’s ability to continue to operate. These are not voices or speculations, but an alarm launched by Eastman Kodak Company itself. The reason is as simple as brutal: the money is missing to pay the debts.
The main problem is a 500 million short -term dollar loan which, together with over 200 million liabilities related to pensions, forms a mountain almost impossible to climb with current resources. As of August 12, 2025, the company’s liquidity was reduced to $ 155 million, down 46 million compared to the end of 2024
It looks like a paradox for a company that literally invented mass photography. Founded in 1880 by Eastman, Kodak patented the first portable camera in 1888, transforming an art for a few in a pastime for everyone. Throughout the twentieth century, he dominated the market of films and press, becoming a global icon.
Then, the beginning of the new millennium and the digital revolution. A shock wave that Kodak has not been able to ride. While photography became intangible, made of files and screens, the world of films and rollers began a slow but inexorable sunset. The accounts are the most evident proof: if in the 90s sales exceeded 13 billion dollars, in 2002 they had already collapsed at 800 million. The competition, especially the Japanese one of Fujifilm, did the rest, bringing the company to bankruptcy in 2012.
Since then, Kodak has tried to reinvent himself. He even tried the path of the pharmaceutical industry during the Pandemia of 2020, a courageous diversification operation but which was not enough to solve the structural problems. The CEO, Jim Petonza, while underlining the “progress compared to the long -term plan, despite the challenges of an uncertain context”, had to admit the difficult situation.
What will happen now? The company is said to be “confident of being able to extinct a significant part of its loan” and to be able to renegotiate the rest, also thanks to the proceeds of the pension fund, as already reported the Wall Street Journal N2L 2024. But the warning on business continuity remains a boulder.
For millions of people, the possible end of Kodak is a news of finance and, above all, the end of an era. It is the thought that runs to those faded photos, with the white edges, that remind us of our history. Images that, from today, become even more precious: not only fragments of past life, but the testimonies of a world that may no longer exist.
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