Mntsnow
10-13-2003, 8:54 AM
Polaroid's place in history has already been secured by its trademark cameras with their signature instant prints.
But bad investments and the digital imaging revolution buried that business, sending the company spiraling into bankruptcy two years ago as it failed to evolve gracefully in a new instant photo world.
Now Polaroid is back, reconstituted and trying to refocus under new ownership by Chicago-based BankOne. And it's betting its future on digital - on printing kiosks, that is.
"It has to be their future," thinks Buckman, Buckman & Reid analyst Ulysses Yannas. "They don't have a choice."
Relieved of large chunks of the old company's debts (including some pension obligations, to the fury of retirees), and slimmed down from its 1978 peak of 21,000 employees to 3,700, Polaroid is actually making money again on its traditional film and camera business.
Read more (http://australianit.news.com.au/articles/0,7204,7542814%5E15306%5E%5Enbv%5E,00.html)
But bad investments and the digital imaging revolution buried that business, sending the company spiraling into bankruptcy two years ago as it failed to evolve gracefully in a new instant photo world.
Now Polaroid is back, reconstituted and trying to refocus under new ownership by Chicago-based BankOne. And it's betting its future on digital - on printing kiosks, that is.
"It has to be their future," thinks Buckman, Buckman & Reid analyst Ulysses Yannas. "They don't have a choice."
Relieved of large chunks of the old company's debts (including some pension obligations, to the fury of retirees), and slimmed down from its 1978 peak of 21,000 employees to 3,700, Polaroid is actually making money again on its traditional film and camera business.
Read more (http://australianit.news.com.au/articles/0,7204,7542814%5E15306%5E%5Enbv%5E,00.html)