To end up with bankruptcy, Eastman Kodak opined his plans to sell out its consumer and document imaging businesses and swing its focus to commercial printing.
The once-dominant photography firm, already in the midst of auctioning off its digital patent portfolio, hopes to complete the sales by mid-2013, Chief Executive Antonio Perez said in a conference call on Thursday.

To pay back its creditors and shut doors to bankruptcy, the company needs to lift up the funds nearly to $700 million. Also, kept hope in its patent sale, which would generate at least that much. But more than two weeks into its auction and still without a deal, the company may be looking for other ways to raise cash.
“For ensuring sufficient funding for successful emergence (from bankruptcy), the sale of these businesses is important in that regard,” Perez said on the call.

The businesses to be sold are Kodak’s personalized imaging business, which includes most consumer products and retail printing kiosks, and its document imaging business, which makes scanners for enterprise customers.

Perez did not divulge on the progress of the patent sale. According to Wall Street Journal reports earlier this month that initial bids, including from Apple and Google, came in lower than expected.

The auction began on August 8 and had been scheduled to wrap up by August 13, but Kodak extended the deadline as talks continued without a buyer.

The newly-announced sales would mean that Kodak would emerge from bankruptcy as a different company than when it went in, with less of a focus on consumer and retail, and heavier attention to commercial, packaging and functional printing.

“You can’t succeed these days without focusing in certain areas and putting all your money in areas that are synergetic with each other,” Perez said, adding that he believes Kodak is “as strong or stronger” in the commercial space as in the consumer space.

Perez would not reveal the estimated value of the businesses to be sold.

The bankruptcy is in Re: Eastman Kodak et al, US Bankruptcy Court, Southern District of New York, No. 12-10202.