19 January 2012: Kodak files for bankruptcy
Eastman Kodak filed for Chapter 11 protection, a stunning fall for a company that once dominated photography. The irony was hard to miss: a Kodak engineer built one of the first digital cameras in 1975, but the company kept protecting its profitable film business. Digital photography, and then smartphones, did the rest. Kodak saw the future clearly and decided it did not like it.
The lesson: Protecting today's profits from tomorrow's technology works right up until it suddenly stops working.
What it meant for investors
$1,000 in Kodak at the start of 2012 → $0 today, vs $5,312 in the S&P 500.
We start the clock at the start of 2012, the year it happened. Kodak went to zero, so the position is worth nothing at all; the index turned the same money into $5,312.
What Kodak teaches: Inventing the future does not help if your profits depend on the past; disruption usually wins when the old business is far more profitable than the new one.
| Bought in | Price then | Worth today | S&P 500 would be |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | $22.00 | $0 | $4,626 |
| 2010 | $4.00 | $0 | $6,071 |
| 2012 | $0.6 | $0 | $5,312 |
green = beat the S&P 500 · red = lost money
What if you bought Kodak? Every starting year and the full story →
Could you have called it at the time? The wheel picks the year, you pick the position, ten seconds a pick.
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