Despite bullish statements from the company [URL="http://dpnow.com/forum2/blog.php?b=268"]last week[/URL] and a positive response from the financial world, Kodak has filed for bankruptcy protection today. The company is suffering from a major cash-flow problem although it says important parts of its business, like ink-jet printers, are profitable.

Kodak says that bankruptcy protection measures will give it more time to liquidate non-core assets and to find buyers and licensees for its large portfolio of technology patents.

While Kodak claims to have invented the first digital camera in 1975 (with a jaw-dropping resolution of 0.1 megapixels), the company failed to react to the sharp rise in digital camera sales and usage in the stemming from the late 1990s. With a large film-based business to protect, Kodak dithered and paid the price when digital started to slaughter film sales. You only have to look at Fujifilm, which was its direct global competitor, to see where Kodak went wrong.

It's likely the Kodak brand will survive, but whether the company itself can remain independent remains to be seen.