Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Technology Stocks : WDC/Sandisk Corporation -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Road Walker who wrote (25856)	5/18/2004 6:48:37 PM
From: Art Bechhoefer	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 60323

>>why Kodak didn't buy SanDisk<< John, it was a classic example of executives being unable to free themselves from the old notions that film would never be replaced, combined with a business model where Kodak would always act as the intermediary in the developing and printing of photos. The slogan coined by George Eastman before 1900 (You press the button. We do the rest.) became the heart of a culture that couldn't adjust to the camera user doing everything from taking the photo to making the print. Every digital strategy adopted by Kodak was designed to allow Kodak to take a cut of the users money for printing or slide shows, or whatever. It dawned on Kodak only too late that digital technology was so advanced that a non-technical user could still get wonderful prints and slides from a digital image WITHOUT Kodak involvement at all. In the time it took for Kodak to realize it must be a major player in digital, it gave up its leadership in sensors to the Japanese, gave up its camera making to a medium quality Japanese company, and declined to take an equity position in the leading flash company (SanDisk) when the largest shareholder, Seagate Technology, was selling its position to raise cash to go private. If you talked with some of the now retired Kodak managers and executives, as I have, you would understand immediately why the company was so reluctant to move into digital and why it may never be more than just another player in a field dominated by the likes of Nikon, Canon, Sony, Samsung, SanDisk, and Hewlett Packard. One innovative product that Kodak developed--the organic light emitting diode--still does not appear on any Kodak cameras in the U.S., and is likely not to appear until other companies, such as Olympus, have brought out products. Once again, too little, too late. Art

To: Road Walker who wrote (25856)	5/18/2004 9:06:41 PM
From: Sam	Respond to of 60323

I'll never understand why Kodak didn't buy SanDisk. Instead of being run out of town, they could be leading the parade. You should know that people who run big companies with deeply vested interests rarely see real threats to their business or see really innovative, different ways of doing things. Xerox, through their research center PARC, led a good deal of the desktop computer revolution but didn't know what they had. Neither did IBM, for that matter. It would have taken more than most top corporate bosses have to have led EK heads to accept the digital revolution.