Hello Josef
Here is what i believe is going good revenue growth for Kodak.
I'm looking to buy and hoping for some dips in Kodak's stock price.
Revenues in their digital business has been harder to come by.
But this is an excellent direction for them to be growing.. I like their strategy of teaming up rather than going it alone.Their positioning
themselves well lately specifically with the Intel deal.George Fisher
made comments at the annual meeting about a price share of $125
I hope he's right.
Kodak Teams Up With America Online
By BEN DOBBIN
.c The Associated Press
ROCHESTER, N.Y. (AP) - Eastman Kodak Co.'s long-drawn effort to profit from digital photography is getting 12 million potential customers who might be willing to have pictures delivered to an America Online account.
While turning traditional snapshots into electronic images has caught on with some computer and photo hobbyists, for most the technology is an untried novelty.
Under a three-year alliance announced Tuesday, America Online's subscribers will be able to take conventional film to 30,000 Kodak photofinishing stores around the country and have digitized copies delivered to their computer for an extra $5 to $7 a roll.
The service, called ''You've Got Pictures!'' will allow subscribers to store photos in a private, online photo album. They will be able to personalize the albums by adding captions and backgrounds and cropping or enlarging the pictures. The photos could either be downloaded or transmitted online to friends or family.
While Kodak and other photofinishing companies have been offering electronic delivery, the deal with America Online makes the technology readily accessible.
In February, Kodak bought a majority stake in its biggest online competitor, PictureVision Inc., adding about 40,000 customers to the 5,000 that subscribed to its own fledgling Internet-based service.
Last month, it turned to computer-chip maker Intel Corp. for help in developing and marketing a variety of digital-imaging products, notably a new line of leaner and cheaper cameras.
By 1999, when Kodak's wholesale photofinishing labs are equipped with Intel scanning equipment, people should be able to store their negatives on CDs as cheaply and quickly as converting a roll of film into prints.
''Intuitively, it certainly makes a lot of sense for the No. 1 semiconductor company, the No. 1 photographic company and the No. 1 online services company to all be working together in one form or another,'' said Rebecca Runkle, an analyst with Morgan Stanley Dean Witter & Co.
''But whether or not Kodak is able to turn those efforts into profitable growth is a question that remains to be answered.''
Kodak is scrambling to shore up losses in its traditional film business - its cash cow took a battering last year when archrival Fuji Photo Film Co. of Japan slashed color film prices in the United States.
It also needs to jump-start its digital business, which racked up $495 million in losses over the last five quarters and has yet to turn a profit.
Financial terms were not disclosed, but Kodak and Dulles, Va.-based America Online will split sales from digitizing each roll of film and AOL will buy a minority stake in PictureVision.
AP-NY-05-19-98 1702EDT |
