Eastman Kodak Co is looking to sell off its Eastman Software division, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal. Kodak acquired the imaging software division, from Wang Laboratories Inc, just over two years ago in January 1997, paying $260m (CI No 3,089), and formed its Eastman Software subsidiary in March of the same year. Wang’s trump card at the time was that it was then Microsoft Corp’s preferred vendor for design workflow and imaging software, and wrote the Imaging for Windows accessory included within Windows95 and NT 4.0.
But Kodak failed to make a success of the division, which is said to have been losing around $12m a quarter. It failed to set up the necessary distribution channels for the complex software. Eastman, which has revenues of around $60m a year, was also dogged by an existing OEM agreement with Unisys Corp, which had been diverting its efforts to establish the WorkFlow for NT product line by obligating it to carry out proprietary development work. That agreement was finally terminated earlier this year
(CI No 3,584).
Kodak, which has been implementing extensive cost cutting and wants to get back to its core businesses, is also looking to sell off its office copier and writeable compact disk divisions.
