Kodak Today

Today, Eastman Kodak is a world leader in both consumer and specialist photographic products. It has won eight Oscars for its technical contributions to the movie industry and is dominant in the field of medical laser imaging. The company’s involvement in the development of plastics for photographic film, film containers, and camera bodies resulted in sideways expansion into the fields of synthetic fibers, coal-based industrial chemicals, and general plastics. In the 1990s, Eastman Kodak decided to concentrate on its core businesses and divested itself of peripheral interests by selling off the Eastman Chemical Company and its pharmaceutical businesses. In spite of growing competition from Japanese companies since the 1950s, Eastman Kodak has been able to maintain a healthy share of the camera and film markets in the United States and overseas. The one notable exception has been Japan. In 1995, the company petitioned the U.S. government to take action against anticompetitive trade practices in the Japanese photographic film market. Two years later, the U.S. government responded by filing the case with the World Trade Organization, as yet unresolved.