Kodak Selling Online Photo Service to Shutterfly

Eastman Kodak Co. entered an agreement with Shutterfly, an Internet-based social expression and personal publishing service, for the proposed sale of certain assets of its Kodak Gallery online photo services business for $23.8 million.

Under the agreement, Kodak will transfer its US and Canada Gallery customer accounts and images to Shutterfly.

The agreement comprises the initial, stalking horse bid in a court-supervised auction process under Section 363 of the US Bankruptcy Code that will ensure the maximization of value for the assets. Kodak plans to complete the sale process by this spring. It filed for Chapter 11 in mid-January. (See: Kodak Files for Chapter 11)

“This sale is consistent with our objective of focusing Kodak on a core set of businesses in which we can most profitably leverage our technology and brand strengths, and provides a well-proven mechanism for ensuring that Kodak receives maximum value from these assets,” said Pradeep Jotwani, president of Consumer Businesses and chief marketing officer at Kodak.

Jotwani said that Kodak will work closely with Shutterfly to ensure a smooth transition and that customer photos will continue to be safeguarded throughout the process. Any customers who do not want their photos transferred to Shutterfly will be given the opportunity to opt out of the transition process. Customers can then retrieve their images through free downloads or by purchasing DVDs from the Kodak Gallery, which has more than 75 million users.

Kodak — which recently licensed numerous laser-projection technologies to Imax Corp. (See: Kodak Licenses Laser Projection Tech to Imax) and filed suits against smartphone giants Apple and HTC for infringement (See: Kodak Trims Units, Files Lawsuits) — will now focus its consumer business on retail and destination photo solutions as well as home printing products, Jotwani said.

For more information, visit: www.kodak.com