The Eastman Kodak Company is an American technology company that produces camera-related products with its historic basis on photography. The company is headquartered in Rochester, New York, is incorporated in New Jersey. Kodak provides packaging, functional printing, graphic communications and professional services for businesses around the world, its main business segments are Print Systems, Enterprise Inkjet Systems, Micro 3D Printing and Packaging and Solutions, Consumer and Film. It is best known for photographic film products. Kodak was founded by George Eastman and Henry A. Strong on September 4, 1888. During most of the 20th century, Kodak held a dominant position in photographic film; the company's ubiquity was such that its "Kodak moment" tagline entered the common lexicon to describe a personal event, demanded to be recorded for posterity. Kodak began to struggle financially in the late 1990s, as a result of the decline in sales of photographic film and its slowness in transitioning to digital photography, despite developing the first self-contained digital camera.

As a part of a turnaround strategy, Kodak began to focus on digital photography and digital printing, attempted to generate revenues through aggressive patent litigation. In January 2012, Kodak filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. Shortly thereafter Kodak announced that it would stop making digital cameras, pocket video cameras and digital picture frames and focus on the corporate digital imaging market. Digital cameras are still sold under the Kodak brand by JK Imaging Ltd under an agreement with Kodak. In August 2012, Kodak announced its intention to sell its photographic film, commercial scanners and kiosk operations, as a measure to emerge from bankruptcy, but not its motion picture film operations. In January 2013, the Court approved financing for Kodak to emerge from bankruptcy by mid 2013. Kodak sold many of its patents for $525,000,000 to a group of companies under the names Intellectual Ventures and RPX Corporation.

On September 3, 2013, the company emerged from bankruptcy having shed its large legacy liabilities and exited several businesses. Personalized Imaging and Document Imaging are now part of Kodak Alaris, a separate company owned by the UK-based Kodak Pension Plan. From the company's founding by George Eastman in 1888, Kodak followed the razor and blades strategy of selling inexpensive cameras and making large margins from consumables – film and paper; as late as 1976, Kodak commanded 90% of film sales and 85% of camera sales in the U. S. Kodak developed and patented the first handheld digital camera in 1975. Japanese competitor Fujifilm entered the U. S. market with lower-priced film and supplies, but Kodak did not believe that American consumers would desert its brand. Kodak declined an opportunity to become the official film of the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. Fuji opened a film plant in the U. S. and its aggressive marketing and price cutting began taking market share from Kodak. Fuji went from a 10% share in the early 1990s to 17% in 1997.

Fuji made headway into the professional market with specialty transparency films such as Velvia and Provia, which competed with Kodak's signature professional product, but used the more economical and common E-6 processing machines which were standard in most processing labs, rather than the dedicated machines required by Kodachrome. Fuji's films soon found a competitive edge in higher-speed negative films, with a tighter grain structure. In May 1995, Kodak filed a petition with the US Commerce Department under section 301 of the Commerce Act arguing that its poor performance in the Japanese market was a direct result of unfair practices adopted by Fuji; the complaint was lodged by the United States with the World Trade Organization. On January 30, 1998, the WTO announced a "sweeping rejection of Kodak's complaints" about the film market in Japan. Kodak's financial results for the year ending December 1997 showed that company's revenues dropped from $15.97 billion in 1996 to $14.36 billion in 1997, a fall of more than 10%.

Kodak's market share declined from 80.1% to 74.7% in the United States, a one-year drop of five percentage points that had observers suggesting that Kodak was slow to react to changes and underestimated its rivals. Although from the 1970s both Fuji and Kodak recognized the upcoming threat of digital photography, although both sought diversification as a mitigation strategy, Fuji was more successful at diversification. Although Kodak developed the first handheld digital camera in 1975, the product was dropped for fear it would threaten Kodak's main income. In the 1990s, Kodak planned a decade-long journey to move to digital technology. CEO George M. C. Fisher reached out to other new consumer merchandisers. Apple's pioneering QuickTake consumer digital cameras, introduced in 1994, had the Apple label but were produced by Kodak; the DC-20 and DC-25 launched in 1996. Overall, there was little implementation of the new digital strategy. Kodak's core business faced no pressure from competing technologies, as Kodak executives could not imagine a world without traditional film there was little incentive to deviate from that course.

Consumers switched to the digital offering from companies such as Sony. In 2001 film sales dropped, attributed by Kodak to the financial shocks caused by the

"Red-winged parrotlet" redirects here, but see text for details. The blue-fronted parrotlet is known as the red-winged parrotlet, it is a parrot in N. South America from E. Panama down the west coastal Andes to Peru, with a second population around and south of Lake Maracaibo, it is 15 cm, green with a short tail, blue forehead with narrow band of red under eye, red shoulders and leading edge of underwing, the remaining underwing coverts yellow. Edges of tail yellowish. Found in humid and cloud forest from 800-1600m, it is spotted as low as 100m. Little known, as it is hard to see in the canopy where it lives and is most seen while flying over the canopy; the red-fronted parrotlet is in older sources like ITIS, included in the red-winged parrotlet. Most modern authors consider them two species. Speaking, the term "red-winged parrotlet" refers to the T. costaricensis - dilectissimus clade. Juniper & Parr Parrots: A Guide to Parrots of the World. World Parrot Trust Parrot Encyclopedia - Species Profile

Toubab Krewe is an American instrumental band which fuses the music of Mali with American musical styles. The group's instrumentation includes kora, soku, two electric guitars, electric bass guitar, drum set, African percussion; the group, based in Asheville, North Carolina, was founded in early 2005 and has traveled to West Africa several times, working with local musicians. The band released their self-titled debut album in 2005, recorded by Steven Heller at Upstream Records in Asheville, North Carolina; the band released their second album "TK2" on September 2010 on the Nat Geo Music label. It was produced by Steven Heller. In several West African languages, including Bambara and Wolof, Toubab means "foreigner." "Krewe" is a reference to the New Orleans region's spelling of the word "Crew." Their lone television work was the main titles for the PBS series "Milk Street Television" hosted by Christopher Kimball of America's Test Kitchen. Teal Brown - drum set Vic Stafford - drum set Drew Heller - electric guitar and soku Justin Perkins - kora and electric guitar David Pransky - electric bass guitar Justin Kimmel - electric bass Luke Quaranta - percussion Terrence Houston - drum set As of 2013, the band is donating between fifty cents and one dollar on every ticket sold for their concerts to Instruments 4 Africa, a 501 organization.

These donations will go to build a music school in the Bamako, Mali area. The school will be headed by Lamine Soumano. Toubab Krewe's Official Website Toubab Krewe on MySpace Live Toubab Krewe Performances at archive.org Toubab Krewe Interview Toubab Krewe at the Festival of the Desert in Mali Toubab Krewe Interview March 2009 Toubab Krewe: Somewhere Between Worlds By Tim Newby, from HonestTune.com