Eastman Kodak announces level sales, admits to concerns over long-term viability

Eastman Kodak Co. was back in the news last week, as mainstream financial news organizations and distraught tech bloggers glommed onto a few sentences in the company’s earnings report (see below) that stated the company doesn’t have “committed financing or available liquidity” to pay its roughly $500 million in upcoming debt obligations.

“These conditions raise substantial doubt about the company’s ability to continue as a going concern,” Kodak said in the filing. The reaction from the business press was swift and judgmental:

“133-year old Kodak says it might have to cease operations” – CNN

“Kodak warns its business is in “substantial doubt” after 133 years” – CBS News

“Kodak faces financial struggles even as Gen Z sparks a film resurgence” – CNBC

In response, the company posted the following on its website:

Media reports that Kodak is ceasing operations, going out of business, or filing for bankruptcy are inaccurate and reflect a fundamental misunderstanding of a recent technical disclosure the Company made to the SEC in its recently filed second quarter earnings report. These articles are misleading and missing critical context, and we’d like to set the record straight.

The most important things to know are:

• Kodak has no plans to cease operations, go out of business, or file for bankruptcy protection.
• To the contrary, Kodak is confident it will repay, extend, or refinance its debt and preferred stock on, or before, its due date.
• When the transactions we have planned are completed, which is expected to be early next year, Kodak will have a stronger balance sheet than we have had in years and will be virtually net debt free.
• The “going concern disclosure” is a technical report that is required by accounting rules.
• We will continue to meet our obligations to all pension fund participants.

Pension Fund Transaction
Kodak has been preparing for the pension plan termination for some time and expects to receive approximately $500 million of assets – after meeting our obligations to all pension fund participants – in December 2025 when the transaction closes. Approximately $300 million of the funds are expected to be cash, and approximately $200 million are expected to be investment assets that will be converted into cash.

Kodak’s Debt Position
To provide context, Kodak currently has $477 million of term debt and $100 million of preferred stock outstanding. Kodak is required by its loan documents to use the $300 million of cash expected to be received in December to repay term debt. Kodak can then address the remaining $177 million of term debt and $100 million of preferred stock.

Kodak’s Ongoing Operations
In addition to our focus on reducing debt and interest payments, we believe our business is stable and self-sustaining. In Q2 2025 we used only $3 million in cash, primarily to invest in growth initiatives, a significant improvement compared with Q1, and we do not plan to rely on cash from the pension fund transaction to fund our operations.

In short, Kodak is confident in its plan to meet all its obligations and optimistic about its future.

When it was all said and done, after a few days of sell-offs, Kodak’s stock price remained about the same as it was when its earnings were announced. Indeed, once journalists began to consider the impact of Kodak’s previously announced plan to terminate its pension plan to pay down debt – reported here on the Dead Pixels Society – they began to tone down the rhetoric.

“The pension plan — currently in a process of winding-down — is expected to distribute about $500 million in assets to the company by December. That includes $300 million in cash ahead of next May, when a $477 million term loan and about $100 million in preferred stock come due.

” ‘ Kodak thinks they’re going to be able to stabilize by mid-year 2026. But that’s contingent on a very tenuous plan,’ said Monique D. Hayes, a partner and bankruptcy attorney at DGIM Law.”

–Dorothy Ma, Bloomberg.

Not too long ago, Forbes was singing the praises of CEO Jim Continenza, explaining how the company has evolved from a bankrupt photography company in 2012 to a “a B2B company specializing in chemicals, materials handling, and manufacturing. In May, Kodak announced it was working on a new $20 million plant in Rochester, New York making chemicals for the pharmaceutical industry.”

“That’s a hard transition for people to accept,” Continenza told Forbes. “You don’t get to go on the race cars, all those great things don’t happen. You focus clearly on your business. We had to focus on our customer, our capabilities, and then our profitability, which was way out of whack.”

This is not to say Kodak is in pristine condition, as the earnings report below shows. But it’s certainly too early to be declaring, once again, the dissolution of the industry’s forefather.

Kodak second-quarter earnings

Eastman Kodak Co. reported second-quarter consolidated revenues of $263 million, compared with $267 million for Q2 2024, a decrease of $4 million or 1 percent. Gross profit was  $51 million, compared with $58 million for Q2 2024, a decrease of $7 million or 12 percent

A quarter-end cash balance of $155 million, compared with $201 million on Dec. 31, 2024, a decrease of $46 million; cash flow from operations decreased by $40 million from the prior-year period

“In the second quarter, Kodak continued to make progress against our long-term plan despite the challenges of an uncertain business environment,” said Jim Continenza, Kodak’s Executive Chairman and CEO. “While tariffs did not have a material impact on our business in Q2, we are assessing the potential impact of new tariffs going forward. It’s important to note that Kodak is committed to U.S. manufacturing — in fact, we manufacture a wide range of products in the U.S., including lithographic printing plates, photographic and industrial films, inkjet presses and inks, and pharmaceutical key starting ingredients — and our expectation is that tariffs instituted by the U.S. government are designed to protect American businesses like ours. We continue to accelerate the growth of our Advanced Materials & Chemicals (“AM&C”) business. I’m pleased to report that our AM&C group’s cGMP pharmaceutical manufacturing facility is now registered with the FDA and certified to manufacture and sell regulated pharmaceutical products, expanding our current business in unregulated pharmaceutical products. The facility will begin operation manufacturing phosphate buffered saline (PBS) for laboratory use and create a bridge to manufacturing more sophisticated specialty products, such as injectable IV saline, in the future. For the balance of the year, we plan to focus on serving our customers, strengthening our balance sheet and developing growth businesses for our future.”

For the quarter ended June 30, 2025, revenues were $263 million, a decrease of $4 million or 1 percent compared to the same period in 2024. Adjusting for the favorable impact of foreign exchange of $5 million, revenues decreased by $9 million, or 3 percent when compared to the prior year.

GAAP net loss was $26 million for the quarter, compared to net income of $26 million in 2024, a decrease of $52 million or 200 percent. Operational EBITDA for the quarter ended June 30, 2025, was $9 million, compared to $12 million in 2024, a decrease of $3 million or 25 percent. Adjusting for the favorable impact of foreign exchange of $1 million, Operational EBITDA decreased by $4 million or 33% compared to the prior year. The decrease in Operational EBITDA was primarily driven by lower volumes and higher aluminum and manufacturing costs, partially offset by price increases and lower spend on investments in information technology systems, organizational structure and costs associated with trade shows.

Kodak ended the quarter with a cash balance of $155 million, a decrease of $46 million from December 31, 2024. The decrease was primarily driven by capital expenditures to fund growth initiatives, changes in working capital, impact of higher costs and lower profitability from operations.

“During the second quarter, Kodak continued its focus on improving the efficiency of our operations and investing in growth initiatives in our AM&C group,” said David Bullwinkle, Kodak’s CFO. “Revenue for the quarter was roughly flat year over year, which was in line with expectations, and we continued to see revenue growth in our AM&C business. In Q2 we saw a significant improvement in our use of cash compared with the first quarter, reducing our cash balance by $3 million to $155 million, compared with $201 million on December 31, 2024. The termination of our U.S. Kodak Retirement Income Plan and subsequent reversion of excess funds to pay down debt is progressing as planned. We expect to have a clear understanding by August 15 of how we will satisfy our obligations to all plan participants, and we anticipate completing the reversion by December of 2025. For the second half of the year, we will continue to focus on reducing costs today and converting our investments into long-term growth.”

Going Concern Assessment

Kodak has included a disclosure regarding its going concern assessment in its second quarter 2025 Form 10-Q filing. Kodak’s plans to adequately fund its preferred stock and debt obligations when they become due are to use the proceeds from the expected reversion of cash to the company upon settlement of obligations under the Kodak Retirement Income Plan to reduce the amount of term debt and to amend, extend or refinance its remaining debt and preferred stock obligations. These plans are not solely within Kodak’s control and therefore are not deemed “probable” under U.S. GAAP accounting rules. As a result, these conditions raise substantial doubt about the Company’s ability to continue as a going concern as of the issuance date of the Company’s second quarter financials. Refer to Going Concern subsection of Note 1, “Basis of Presentation and Recent Accounting Pronouncements” in the Company’s second quarter 2025 Form 10-Q for additional information.

Revenue and Operational EBITDA by Reportable Segment Q2 2025 vs. Q2 2024

* Total Operational EBITDA is a non-GAAP financial measure. The reconciliation between GAAP and non-GAAP measures is provided in Appendix A of this press release.

** The impact of foreign exchange represents the foreign exchange impact using average foreign exchange rates for the three months ended June 30, 2024, rather than the actual average exchange rates in effect for the three months ended June 30, 2025.