$525 million patents deal will unlock funding for bankruptcy exit Eastman Kodak Co.’s bankruptcy to-do list is getting ever shorter: • Eliminate roughly $100 million in annual spending on retiree benefits. Check. • Cut costs, from its naming rights deal for Hollywood’s Kodak Theater to thousands of workers. Check. • Focus on its profitable operations by getting out of such buinesses as digital cameras and desktop inkjet printers. Check. And now, Kodak has tentatively worked out a deal to sell a mountain of digital imaging patents for $525 million. The patent sale was a key prerequisite of Kodak getting $830 million in financing from a variety of lenders to finish up its bankruptcy. The patent money will largely be used to pay off creditors. The patent deal marks “a major turning point in (Kodak’s bankruptcy), unlocking a key source of financing for the completion of (its) operational restructuring, while preserving intellectual property rights essential to the implementation of their plan for emergence from Chapter 11,” Kodak said in court paperwork. A U.S. Bankruptcy Court hearing on the patent deal is scheduled for Jan. 11. Buying the patents is patent licensor Intellectual Ventures. The intellectual property company has in turn lined up a dozen of the biggest names in the technology universe to license the patents, with Kodak’s money coming from Intellectual Ventures and from the licensees. The licensees are Apple Inc., Research in Motion Ltd., Google Inc., Facebook Inc., Microsoft Corp., Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., Adobe Systems Inc., HTC Corp., Fujifilm Corp., Huawei Technologies Ltd., Shutterfly Inc. and Amazon Fulfillment Services Inc. The patent deal, announced Wednesday, is one of the last big hurdles remaining as Kodak looks to end its Chapter 11 bankruptcy sometime in the first half of 2013. And it caps nearly 18 months worth of effort by Kodak to turn its digital imaging patents into quick cash. Kodak in July 2011 hired financial adviser Lazard Freres & Co. LLC to help market the patent portfolio as the company started running into trouble with new licensing agreements. http://www.democratandchronicle.com/article/...-s-major-turning-point- |