Kodak who in the past has sought and got support from the Australian Federal Government is again struggling with the company’s profits crashing 95 percent. Revenue tumbled 25 percent due to poor digital camera and printer sales and a drop in demand of intellectual-property licensing revenue.Shares of the company dropped 11 percent overnight.
“In a year with significant external headwinds affecting a number of industries in which we participate, I am very encouraged by the performance of our key digital growth businesses,” said Antonio Perez, Kodak’s chief executive officer. “That said, there were particular business challenges in 2010 that we are aggressively addressing.”
The Wall Street Journal said that the fourth quarter is traditionally Kodak’s best quarter because of holiday sales. But revenue dropped 25 percent to $1.93 billion. Digital revenue also dropped 25 percent to $1.49 billion, hurt by the timing of intellectual-property licensing revenue and industry-related pricing pressures. The company’s traditional business dropped 25 percent to $439 million.
Since 2004, the company has only reported a full-year profit once, which came in 2007.
In recent years, the company has relied in large part on patent settlements for revenue as it waits for new business lines like inkjet printers to gain traction, deals last year, with Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics, for its digital-camera technology has helped the company avoid an even bigger loss.
Analysts have expressed concern in the past that the company is overly reliant on patent income, an issue that presented itself in Wednesday’s quarterly report.
