You might say the day is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workday, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Daily Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past 24 hours — all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.
Despite hammering out the details late last year, Kodak still had to wait for the Bankruptcy court to greenlight its big patent sale. Today, that happened: Judge Allan Gropper has approved the $527 million deal between Kodak, Apple and Google — giving the floundering photo company final permission to offload more than 1,000 imaging patents. Kodak originally valued its collection of IP at over $2 billion, which Gropper deemed a bit high. Despite hoping for a higher payout, Kodak’s attorney admits the deal is probably the best it could have hoped for, explaining that the $525 million the company will collect in the agreement will give it some “patent peace.” Apple and Google, once rivals for Kodak’s intellectual property, struck a deal to bid on the patents together — lowering their respective costs and and keeping the bid war out of the courts. Less litigation sounds good to us, even if it’s only for a little while. Check out Bloomberg’s report at the adjacent source link for more info.
Filed under: Misc
Source: Bloomberg
Kodak has been offloading many of its signature businesses, and we’re seeing a another symbolic changing of the guard today: after deciding to quit digital cameras last year, the company is licensing rights to make Kodak-branded cameras to JK Imaging, a subsidiary of global supplier JA Capital Holdings. No, we’re not expecting those names to be immediately recognizable, although the Kodak-badged cameras, pocket camcorders and projectors that should result from the deal will be familiar enough. While it’s unfortunate that any future Kodak cameras won’t come straight from the original source, we won’t judge just yet — after all, similar deals have led to surprising new directions for some of Kodak’s competitors.
Continue reading Kodak licenses its name to JK Imaging for cameras and projectors
Filed under: Cameras
While Apple and Google are competitors in terms of smartphone platforms, they aren’t exactly suing each other, and interestingly it seems that both companies have even gone as far as teaming up together to buy Kodak’s patents for a whopping $500 million. There are other companies reportedly part of this deal, such as Microsoft and Intellectual Ventures, RPX Corp and Asian makers of Google’s Android products. This teaming up is due to the asking price of Kodak’s patents, $500 million which neither side wanted to fork out all by themselves.
We imagine that this purchase of Kodak’s patents will not only boost the portfolios of the companies involved, but at the same time should neutralize Kodak’s lawsuits against Apple and some of Google’s manufacturing partners, whereby Kodak claims that those companies had infringed upon some of their digital imaging patents. While the lawsuits could be neutralized with the purchase of these patents, this will at the same time allow Kodak access to the $830 million exit financing which was contingent on its sale of their patents.
By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Samsung To Pay Apple Less In Damages?, The TurtleJacket PentaEye is an iPhone case for the “serious iPhoneographers”,
It’s not often that you hear that Apple and Google—both fighting for utter smartphone dominance—have teamed up on anything, but reports from Bloomberg say it’s the case. And they’re both going in on a half a billion dollars worth of Kodak patents. More »
Apple and Google have a cordial relationship peppered with bouts of sparring and relentless competing for the world’s mobile users. Now the two companies have formed an unlikely – although not surprising – joint effort to acquire Eastman Kodak’s 1,100 patents, according to unnamed sources familiar with the issue. The patents will cost upwards of $500 million, with both companies having already tried acquiring them for lesser amounts independently.
Eastman Kodak filed for bankruptcy back in January of this year, showing $5.1 billion in assets and $6.5 billion in debt. That debt includes a rather hefty $950 million Citigroup loan, which Kodak will pay off in part with the money it makes from the patent sales. If all goes as planned, Kodak anticipates being out of bankruptcy by June 2013.
It is not uncommon for companies to form a group and jointly bid on patents. Before joining up, Apple and Google both led their own groups in pursuit of the patents. Apple was joined by the likes of Microsoft and Intellectual Venture Management LLC, while Google was joined by manufacturers of Android smartphones and the RPX Corporation. The offers for the patents fell between $150 million and $250 million.
Recent examples of companies jointly acquiring patents includes 2011′s band of Apple, RIM, EMC, Sony Ericsson, Microsoft, and Sony shelling out $4.5 billion for 6,000 Nortel Networks patents and patent applications. Google did not offer a comment when questioned about the matter, saying only that it doesn’t comment on rumors. Likewise, Apple has remained silent amidst the speculation.
[via Bloomberg]
Apple and Google reportedly join forces to buy Kodak patents is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
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After Kodak’s auction to offload 1,100 of its digital imaging patents was green-lit this summer, it looked like Apple and Google were ready to do battle for the goods. Now, however, Bloomberg cites a pair of sources who claim that the two titans have ended their face-off and are combining their efforts in a $500 million-plus bid for the patents. All three parties are staying quiet for now, but the move would certainly not be out of form for technology giants when it comes to lucrative, and potentially volatile, patents. Helping Kodak recover from bankruptcy with more cash in its coffers is nice enough, but avoiding a courtroom feud on digital photos is what sweetens the pot all around.
[Image credit: Viktor Nagornyy, Flickr]
Filed under: Misc, Apple, Google
Source: Bloomberg
Bryce Bayer, former Eastman Kodak scientist, and inventor of the Bayer Filter — found with most modern digital image sensors — has sadly recently passed. Bayer’s work with Kodak left an indelible mark on almost every digital image you see today, both figuratively, and literally. His eponymous color filter, developed in 1976, used a mosaic layout of red green and blue filters that enables light sensors to create full color images. The design imitates the way the human eye perceives color, with twice as much green as red or blue, and the resulting output is then interpreted with “demosaicing” algorithms to produce an accurate, RGB image. Bayer’s work also included significant contributions to other areas of digital photography, including storage, enhancement and printing. Bayer died on November 13th in Bath, Maine aged 83. So, next time you’re enjoying your digital memories, spare a thought for the man who helped make them all possible
Filed under: Cameras
Source: Image Resource
Eastman Kodak, one of the more venerable names when it comes to imaging and photography, intends to put an end to its long drawn out bankruptcy saga. It seems that word on the street has it that a deal has been reached with bondholders for $793 million in loans as well as other debts, and this could possibly help remove it from bankruptcy proceedings. One of the major points required for this deal to fall through is to have Kodak sell off its prized digital photography patent portfolio for a minimum price tag of $500 million.
The bankruptcy court judge in September did close down the patent auction then, but this has not stopped Kodak from continuing in its discussions with a “supergroup” of bidders that comprise of Apple, Google, Microsoft, Intellectual Ventures Management LLC, and RPX Corp. Kodak is required to sell the patents before the year is over in order to meet the criteria for the loans, and time’s running out fast. Despite Kodak’s board of directors having approved the financing, bankruptcy court Judge Allan Gropper will have the last word in the decision ultimately. We do hope that this story ends up on a bright note – how about you?
By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Kodak to end consumer inkjet printer sales in 2013, Kodak to exit the consumer industry, will focus on the enterprise instead,
For those who own Kodak inkjet printers and love it and were hoping for newer inkjet models from Koak in the future, it looks like we have to be the bearers of bad news as the company has announced that they plan to end consumer inkjet printer sales, which at the same time will eliminate 200 more jobs. If some of you might recall, it was in August that Kodak announced their plans to leave the consumer industry, choosing to focus on the enterprise sector instead. If you were hoping to get your hands on Kodak’s inkjet printers, you will still be able to as Kodak will only be winding down sales of printers starting from next year, although for now they will be focusing on supplying printer ink to their existing partners. Kodak is hoping that their shift away from the consumer market and its refocusing will help boost the company’s cash flow in the US starting in the first half of 2013.
By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Kodak to exit the consumer industry, will focus on the enterprise instead, Apple and Google fighting for Kodak’s patents?,
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