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The renamed "old" Polaroid now exists solely as an administrative shell.<ref name="pdcmain">[http://web.archive.org/web/20080118092022/http://www.primarypdc.com/ Front page], Primary PDC website. Retrieved [[2006-11-30]].</ref> Its bankruptcy was widely believed to be the result of the failure of its senior management to anticipate the effect of [[digital cameras]] on its film business.
The renamed "old" Polaroid now exists solely as an administrative shell.<ref name="pdcmain">[http://web.archive.org/web/20080118092022/http://www.primarypdc.com/ Front page], Primary PDC website. Retrieved [[2006-11-30]].</ref> Its bankruptcy was widely believed to be the result of the failure of its senior management to anticipate the effect of [[digital cameras]] on its film business.


On [[December 18]], [[2008]], the post-reorganization Polaroid Corp. filed for [[Chapter 11, Title 11, United States Code|Chapter 11]] [[bankruptcy]] protection in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Minnesota. The bankruptcy filing came shortly after the criminal investigation of its parent company, [[Petters Group Worldwide]], and the parent company founder, Tom Petter.<ref name="petter">[http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=afOdWSvgMXtM&refer=home Front page], Bloomberg News. Retrieved [[2008-12-19]].</ref>
On [[December 18]], [[2008]], the post-reorganization Polaroid Corp. filed for [[Chapter 11, Title 11, United States Code|Chapter 11]] [[bankruptcy]] protection in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Minnesota. The bankruptcy filing came shortly after the criminal investigation of its parent company, [[Petters Group Worldwide]], and the parent company founder, [[Tom Petters]].<ref name="petter">[http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=afOdWSvgMXtM&refer=home Front page], Bloomberg News. Retrieved [[2008-12-19]].</ref>


==History==
==History==

Revision as of 04:12, 13 June 2009


Polaroid Corporation
Company typePrivate
IndustryOptics
Founded1937 (original company)
2001 (post-reorganization company)
2009 (current company)[citation needed]
FounderEdwin H. Land
HeadquartersConcord, Massachusetts, USA
Area served
Worldwide
ProductsDigital cameras, Polaroid Eyewear
ParentPetters Group Worldwide
Websitewww.polaroid.com

Polaroid Corporation is a multinational consumer electronics and eyewear company, originally founded in 1937 by Edwin H. Land. It is most famous for its instant film cameras, which reached the market in 1948, and continued to be the company's flagship product line until the February 2008 decision to cease all production in favor of digital photography products.[1] The company's original dominant market was in polarized sunglasses, an outgrowth of Land's self-guided research in polarization after leaving Harvard University after his freshman year—he later returned to Harvard to continue his research.

After Polaroid defeated Kodak in a patent battle, Kodak left the instant camera business on January 9, 1986.

Polaroid developed an instant movie system, Polavision, based on the Dufaycolor process. The product arrived on the market when videotape based systems were rapidly gaining popularity. As a result, Polavision was unsuccessful and most of the manufactured product was sold off as a job lot at immense cost to the company.

The company also was one of the early manufacturers of digital cameras, with the PDC-2000 in 1996;[2] however, they failed to capture a large market share in that segment.

On October 11, 2001, Polaroid Corporation filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Almost all the company's assets (including the "Polaroid" name itself) were sold to a subsidiary of Bank One. They went on to form a new company, which also operates under the name "Polaroid Corporation".[3] It stopped making Polaroid cameras in 2007 and will stop selling Polaroid film after 2009, to the consternation of some users.[4][5]

The renamed "old" Polaroid now exists solely as an administrative shell.[6] Its bankruptcy was widely believed to be the result of the failure of its senior management to anticipate the effect of digital cameras on its film business.

On December 18, 2008, the post-reorganization Polaroid Corp. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Minnesota. The bankruptcy filing came shortly after the criminal investigation of its parent company, Petters Group Worldwide, and the parent company founder, Tom Petters.[7]

History

Bankruptcy and the "new" Polaroid Corporation

"Chapter 11" controversy

The original Polaroid Corporation filed for federal bankruptcy protection on October 11, 2001. The outcome was that within ten months, most of the business (including the "Polaroid" name itself[8] and non-bankrupt foreign subsidiaries) had been sold to Bank One's One Equity Partners (OEP). OEP Imaging Corporation then changed its name to Polaroid Holding Company (PHC).[9][10] However, this new company operates using the name of its bankrupt predecessor, Polaroid Corporation.[3]

As part of the settlement, the original Polaroid Corporation changed its name to Primary PDC, Inc.[9][6] Having sold its assets, it was now effectively nothing more than an administrative shell. Primary PDC received approximately 35 percent of the "new" Polaroid, which was to be distributed to its unsecured creditors[9] (including bondholders[11]). As of late 2006, Primary PDC remains in existence under Chapter 11 protection, but conducts no commercial business and has no employees.[10]

Significant criticism surrounded this "takeover" because the process left executives of the company with large bonuses, while stockholders, as well as current and retired employees, were left with nothing.[11]

Use of Polaroid brand following bankruptcy

Since the bankruptcy, the Polaroid brand has been licensed for use on other products with the assistance of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom. In September 2002, World Wide Licenses, a subsidiary of The Character Group plc, was granted the exclusive rights for three years to manufacture and sell digital cameras under the Polaroid brand for distribution internationally.[12] Polaroid branded LCDs and plasma televisions and portable DVD players have also appeared on the market.

On April 27, 2005, Petters Group Worldwide announced its acquisition of PHC. Petters has in the past bought up failed companies with well-known names for the value of those names. The same year, Flextronics purchased Polaroid's manufacturing operations and the decision was made to send most of the manufacturing to China. [13] The "new" Polaroid Corporation filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on December 18, 2008.[14]

Auction for Polaroid Corp's Assets

On April 2, 2009 Patriarch Partners LLC won an action for Polaroid Corporation's assets including the company's name, intellectual property, and photography collection. Patriarch' $59.1 million bid beat bids from PHC Acquisitions, Hilco Consumer Capital Corp and Ritchie Capital.

This led to some very contentious fighting and litigation, and Patriarch wound up walking away in early May, 2009, and Hilco picked up the pieces. Quoting from a Reuters report which quoted some participants:

"The move by New York-based Patriarch, a private-equity firm, [to drop their claim], follows US District Judge James Rosenbaum's ruling on Thursday in Minneapolis that putting the purchase on hold during appeal would threaten operations at Polaroid, which is spending its cash at a rate of $3 million a month.

"Polaroid on April 16 won US Bankruptcy Court approval to be sold to a joint venture of Hilco Consumer Capital LP of Toronto and Gordon Brothers Brands LLC of Boston."[15]

Corporate sponsorship of motorsports

In the 1990s, Polaroid was involved in the corporate sponsorship of NASCAR racing. For several years, Polaroid was the principal sponsorof NASCAR's 125 mile Featherlite Modified race at Watkins Glen and it was called the "Polaroid 125".[16] The Polaroid name was also used in sponsorship in the NASCAR Busch series. In 1992, Polaroid was the principal sponsor of female NASCAR driver Shawna Robinson's #25 Oldsmobile in the Busch Series. They continued as her principal sponsor when she moved to the other car numbers in 1993 and 1994.[17] Polaroid currently sponsors the Target Chip Ganassi entries in the IRL Indy Car Series.

More recently, the Polaroid name has been associated with the NOPI drift series. Polaroid is currently the principal sponsor of the 350Z driven by Nick Bollea[18], who placed third in Pittsburgh and tenth in Denver at NOPI events in the 2007 season.[19] Polaroid has chosen not to renew their sponsorship of Bollea for the 2008 season.[20] No official reason has been given, but this decision was made in the wake of a serious accident and allegations of illegal street racing by Bollea.

Discontinuation and planned relaunch of Polaroid film

On February 8, 2008, Polaroid (under the control of Thomas J Petters of Petters Group Worldwide) announced that the company has decided to gradually cease production and withdraw from analog instant film products completely in 2008.[21]

Austrian photographer Florian Kaps, the owner of the largest online vendor for SX-70 films and organizer of the web-based instant photo gallery Polanoid.net, had bought the approximately 500,000 film packages that were on stock. He teamed with André Bosman, a former head of film production in the large Polaroid film factory at Enschede, designed a plan to redesign the SX-70/600 film system in collaboration with Ilford Photo, and convinced the Polaroid owners to participate. Plans for a relaunch under the Impossible label were announced in January 2009[22]. Buildings in the Enschede plant, which had produced 30 million film packs in 2007 and 24 million in the first half of 2008, were leased to the company created by Kaps, who by May 2009 had raised $2.6 million from friends and family[23] for what he had named The Impossible Project[24].

At present work focuses on the development of a new type of film cartridge. The business plan calls for prototypes to be ready by the end of 2009, and for a rollout in 2010 with one million film packs produced. An output of 3 million packs is scheduled for 2011. Impossible will also look at developing new color films for 600 and SX-70 cameras, as well as new Image (or Spectra) films[25].

Digital photography

In summer of 2008, Polaroid released the PoGo, a credit-card-sized instant photo printer. It uses the ZINK ("zero ink") technology which is similar to dye sublimation but has the dye crystals embedded in the photo paper itself.[26]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Jewell, Mark (2008-02-08). "After 60 years, Polaroid quits instant film business". Associated Press. Retrieved 2008-02-16. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  2. ^ Polaroid PDC-2000 Digital Camera
  3. ^ a b "Polaroid and One Equity Partners Complete Asset Acquisition", New Polaroid Corporation. Press release dated 2002-07-31, retrieved 2006-12-01.
  4. ^ Polaroid Abandons Instant Photography [1]
  5. ^ Industries Frantic To Find Polaroid Instant Film [2]
  6. ^ a b Front page, Primary PDC website. Retrieved 2006-11-30.
  7. ^ Front page, Bloomberg News. Retrieved 2008-12-19.
  8. ^ "Shareholders", Primary PDC website. Retrieved 2006-11-30.
  9. ^ a b c Frieswick, Kris, "What's wrong with this picture?", cfo.com. Article dated 2003-01-01, retrieved 2006-11-30. (p1: Sale of business/assets, controversy. p4: Renamed as Primary PDC, distribution to unsecured creditors).
  10. ^ a b FAQ, Primary PDC, Inc. Retrieved 2006-11-30.
  11. ^ a b O'Neill, Jerry"The New Polaroid: After Chapter 11", "From the October 2002 Issue of Imaging Business" via imaginginfo.com. Article updated 2006-02-08, retrieved 2006-12-01.
  12. ^ Press release for camera licensing agreement (PDF), World Wide Licenses Ltd. Article dated 2002-09-24, retrieved 2006-12-01.
  13. ^ RRPC Newsletter, Issue 15, September 2005.
  14. ^ "Tom Petters' Polaroid files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy", Star Tribune. Retrieved on 18 December 2008..
  15. ^ "Polaroid sale can proceed, judge rules", Boston Globe. Retrieved on 07 May 2009..
  16. ^ http://members.aol.com/Autoracg/1997high.html
  17. ^ http://www.racing-reference.info/drivdet?id=robinsh01&yr=1993&series=B
  18. ^ http://hogandrift.com/index.html
  19. ^ http://hogandrift.com/copy_of_index.html
  20. ^ Bay News 9
  21. ^ http://www.polaroid.com/ifilm/en/index.html
  22. ^ Smile! Polaroid is saved. The Guardian, [online edition January 18, 2009
  23. ^ Polaroid Lovers Try to Revive Its Instant Film. The New York Times, online article May 25, 2009
  24. ^ Can one man save Polaroid? The National Post, [online article March 6, 2009
  25. ^ Polaroid's return is not impossible. The Bristish Journal of Photography, online article January 28, 2009
  26. ^ Zink official website

External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Polaroid_Corporation&oldid=296107580"