4th-quarter losses force Kodak to plan more cuts

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (AP) — The digital revolution did away with 40,000 jobs at Eastman Kodak Co. over the past five years.

The global recession is reducing the photography icon’s ranks still further to around 20,000, a level not seen since the Great Depression.

Kodak said Thursday it lost $137 million in the fourth quarter on plunging sales of both digital and film-based photography products. It plans to eliminate 3,500 to 4,500 jobs, or 14 percent to 18 percent of its work force, in 2009.

Its stock lost more than 27 percent of its value, sinking $1.96 to a decadeslong low of $5.11 in afternoon trading.

Its loss in the October-December period amounted to 51 cents a share. That compares with a year-ago profit of $215 million, or 75 cents a share.

Sales slumped 24 percent to $2.43 billion, hit by a sharp slowdown in demand not only for chemical-based film and paper but a new world of electronic-imaging products from cameras, picture frames and inkjet printers to retailer kiosks and high-speed commercial presses.

Excluding restructuring charges and one-time items totaling $112 million, or 42 cents a share, the loss came to $21 million, or 8 cents a share. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters expected, on average, a profit of 21 cents a share on higher sales of $2.81 billion.

Digital revenue dropped 23 percent to $1.78 billion and traditional film-based revenue fell 27 percent to $652 million.

“Consumer digital was a disaster area — it’s the economy, unquestionably,” said Ulysses Yannas, a broker for Buckman, Buckman & Reid in New York. “Long-term, I’m not gloomy about this company but it’s suffering a helluva lot of pain.

“There was a point when Kodak had too many people. Now it’s going the other way, shedding the bulk of manufacturing” as it turns into “an intellectual property and marketing operation. I don’t see that there’s any fat left, which says that when and if this thing turns around, you’re going to have a wild ride.”