I saw a DHL truck on the road a few days ago. It reminded me of the little yellow and red boxes that Kodak film came in when I was buying tons of Verichrome Pan 120 back when Gerald Ford was President. Kodak still makes Verichrome Pan, and it still comes in a little yellow and red box, but I don't know of anybody who uses it any more. I mean, somebody has to, since they still make the stuff, but it's like buying film for an old Calumet 4x5 view camera, arcane, specialized, hard to find and not a growth industry.
You can still find disposable Kodak cameras at the Walgreens, and they'll even process your film for you there, but it's looking more and more as if the film and chemicals that made Kodak a power in the photography business have been overtaken by the technology. Sort of like eight-tracks . Eventually, the Kodak name will fade into obscurity, much like Remington Rand.
That said, there's still a modest dividend that gets paid out every quarter, and the company is not going away. The brand, however, is likely to recede farther into obscurity, and is unlikely to do much better than the S&P500.
$16.52 (08/17/08)
