Kodak files for bankruptcy protection Eastman Kodak's long battle to remake itself for the digital age ended in failure on Thursday as the company that was instrumental in turning photography into a popular pastime filed for bankruptcy. The 131-year-old company said that it had filed for protection under Chapter 11 of the US bankruptcy code, along with its US subsidiaries, but that units elsewhere were not affected by the action and would continue to meet their obligations to suppliers. The move gives the company protection from its creditors while it seeks to reorganise its finances and is intended to result in a reorganisation of the US operations in 2013, Kodak said. The decision to declare bankruptcy, which Kodak said had been a unanimous decision of its board, comes amid attempts to ease the company's financial pressures by selling its portfolio of digital imaging patents. However, any sale made before a potential bankruptcy could eventually be challenged in court by Kodak's creditors, according to bankruptcy lawyers, casting uncertainty over a planned auction and making it hard to complete a sale. Among other things, the bankruptcy filing is intended to make it easier to "monetise non-strategic intellectual property," Kodak said. It said the move would help boost its financial liquidity, with the provision of a new $950m debtor-in-possession credit line from Citigroup, while enabling it to refocus its business on "its most valuable business lines." Kodak recognised early on that the shift to the digital capturing and transmission of pictures would jeopardise silver-halide film sales but was unable to move fast enough to replace the hole in its finances left by the steady decline in its core business. That is despite a number of digital innovations, including an early move into digital cameras. Antonio Perez, chairman and chief executive, said in a statement the company generated 75 per cent of its revenue from digital businesses. However, its overall sales have collapsed faster than it has been able to replace them with new businesses. Successive rounds of budget-cutting have failed to bring costs down fast enough to keep pace with its shrinking operations. Mr Perez said Kodak had shed 47,000 jobs and closed 13 manufacturing plants and 130 processing labs since 2003. Bankruptcy would allow the company to act more quickly to shut unprofitable operations while cutting back on its pension obligations, according to bankruptcy lawyers. The company did not comment on measures it would take to restructure its costs as it announced the Chapter 11 filing. "Kodak is taking a significant step toward enabling our enterprise to complete its transformation," Mr Perez said.