Polaroid Corporation is a
multinationalA multinational corporation or transnational corporation , also called multinational enterprise , is a corporation or enterprise that manages production or delivers services in more than one country...
consumer electronicsConsumer electronics include electronic equipment intended for everyday use. Consumer electronics are most often used in entertainment, communications and office productivity...
and
eyewearEyewear can refer to:*Eyeglasses*Sunglasses*Contact lenses*Eye protection such as goggles...
company, originally founded in 1937 by
Edwin H. LandEdwin Herbert Land was an American scientist and inventor, best known as the co-founder of the Polaroid Corporation...
. It is most famous for its
instant filmInstant film is a type of photographic film first introduced by Polaroid that is designed to be used in an instant camera...
camerathumb |right|Cameras from Large to Small, Film to Digital A camera is a device that records images, either as a still photograph or as moving images known as videos or movies...
s, which reached the market in 1948, and continued to be the company's flagship product line until the February 2008 decision to cease all production in favor of digital photography products. The company's original dominant market was in polarized
sunglassesSunglasses or sun glasses are a form of protective eyewear that usually enclose or protect the eye pupil in order to prevent strong light, ultraviolet rays, and increasingly, blue light from penetrating...
, an outgrowth of Land's self-guided research in
polarizationPolarization is a property of waves that describes the orientation of their oscillations. This article primarily covers the polarization of electromagnetic waves such as light, although other types of wave also exhibit polarization....
after leaving
Harvard UniversityHarvard University is a private university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts and a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1636 by the colonial Massachusetts legislature, Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and currently comprises ten separate academic units...
after his freshman year—he later returned to Harvard to continue his research.
After Polaroid defeated Kodak in a
patentA patent is a set of exclusive rights granted by a state to an inventor or their assignee for a limited period of time in exchange for a public disclosure of an invention....
battle, Kodak left the
instant cameraThe instant camera is a type of camera with self-developing film. The most famous are those formerly made by Polaroid Corporation.The invention of modern instant cameras is generally credited to American scientist Edwin Land, who unveiled the first commercial instant camera, the Land Camera, in...
business on January 9, 1986.
Polaroid developed an instant movie system, Polavision, based on the
DufaycolorDufaycolor is an early French and British additive colour photographic film process for motion pictures and stills photography. It was based on a four-colour screen photographic process invented in 1908 by Frenchman Louis Dufay...
process. The product arrived on the market when videotape based systems were rapidly gaining popularity. As a result, Polavision was unsuccessful and most of the manufactured product was sold off as a job lot at immense cost to the company. Its underlying technology was later improved for use in the Polachrome instant slide film system.
The company also was one of the early manufacturers of digital cameras, with the PDC-2000 in 1996; however, they failed to capture a large market
share in that segment.
On October 11, 2001, Polaroid Corporation filed for
Chapter 11Chapter 11 is a chapter of the United States Bankruptcy Code, which permits reorganization under the bankruptcy laws of the United States. Chapter 11 bankruptcy is available to every business, whether organized as a corporation or sole proprietorship, and to individuals, although it is most...
bankruptcyBankruptcy is a legally declared inability or impairment of ability of an individual or organization to pay its creditors. Creditors may file a bankruptcy petition against a debtor in an effort to recoup a portion of what they are owed or initiate a restructuring...
protection. Almost all the company's assets (including the "Polaroid" name itself) were sold to a
subsidiaryA subsidiary, in business matters, is an entity that is controlled by a separate entity. The controlled entity is called a company, corporation, or limited liability company and in some cases can be a government or state-owned enterprise, and the controlling entity is called its parent...
of Bank One. They went on to form a new company, which also operates under the name "Polaroid Corporation". It stopped making Polaroid cameras in 2007 and will stop selling Polaroid film after 2009, to the consternation of some users.
The renamed "old" Polaroid now exists solely as an administrative shell. Its bankruptcy was widely believed to be the result of the failure of its senior management to anticipate the effect of digital cameras on its film business.
On December 18, 2008, the post-reorganization Polaroid Corp. filed for
Chapter 11Chapter 11 is a chapter of the United States Bankruptcy Code, which permits reorganization under the bankruptcy laws of the United States. Chapter 11 bankruptcy is available to every business, whether organized as a corporation or sole proprietorship, and to individuals, although it is most...
bankruptcyBankruptcy is a legally declared inability or impairment of ability of an individual or organization to pay its creditors. Creditors may file a bankruptcy petition against a debtor in an effort to recoup a portion of what they are owed or initiate a restructuring...
protection in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Minnesota. The bankruptcy filing came shortly after the criminal investigation of its parent company,
Petters Group WorldwidePetters Group Worldwide is a diversified company based in Minnetonka, Minnesota. It currently has 3,200 employees and investments or full ownership in 60 companies, of which it actively managed 20, with offices in North America, South America, Asia, and Europe. Among its assets are Sun Country...
, and the parent company founder,
Tom PettersThomas J. Petters is an American businessman, a philanthropist and the former CEO and chairman of Petters Group Worldwide. Petters resigned his position as CEO on September 29, 2008, amid mounting criminal investigations.-Early years:...
.
"Chapter 11" controversy
The original Polaroid Corporation filed for federal
bankruptcyBankruptcy is a legally declared inability or impairment of ability of an individual or organization to pay its creditors. Creditors may file a bankruptcy petition against a debtor in an effort to recoup a portion of what they are owed or initiate a restructuring...
protection on October 11, 2001. The outcome was that within ten months, most of the business (including the "Polaroid" name itself and non-bankrupt foreign subsidiaries) had been sold to Bank One's
One Equity PartnersOne Equity Partners is a private equity firm focused on leveraged buyout and growth capital investments in middle market companies across a range of industries....
(OEP). OEP Imaging Corporation then changed its name to
Polaroid Holding Company (
PHC). However, this new company operates using the name of its bankrupt predecessor, Polaroid Corporation.
As part of the settlement, the original Polaroid Corporation changed its name to
Primary PDC, Inc. Having sold its assets, it was now effectively nothing more than an administrative shell. Primary PDC received approximately 35 percent of the "new" Polaroid, which was to be distributed to its
unsecured creditorAn unsecured creditor is a creditor which is not a preferential creditor and which does not have the benefit of any security interests in the assets of the debtor....
s (including
bondholdersIn finance, a bond is a debt security, in which the authorized issuer owes the holders a debt and, depending on the terms of the bond, is obliged to pay interest and/or to repay the principal at a later date, termed maturity...
). , Primary PDC remains in existence under Chapter 11 protection, but conducts no commercial business and has no employees.
Significant criticism surrounded this "takeover" because the process left executives of the company with large bonuses, while stockholders, as well as current and retired employees, were left with nothing.
Use of Polaroid brand following bankruptcy
Since the bankruptcy, the Polaroid brand has been licensed for use on other products with the assistance of
Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & FlomSkadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP and Affiliates , founded in 1948, is a prominent law firm based in New York City. With over 2,000 attorneys, it is one of the largest and highest-grossing law firms in the world. Forbes magazine calls Skadden "Wall Street's most powerful law firm"...
. In September 2002, World Wide Licenses, a subsidiary of The Character Group plc, was granted the exclusive rights for three years to manufacture and sell digital cameras under the Polaroid brand for distribution internationally. Polaroid branded LCDs and plasma televisions and portable
DVD playerA DVD player is a device that plays discs produced under both the DVD-Video and DVD-Audio technical standards, two different and incompatible standards.- Technical Details :A DVD player has to complete these tasks:...
s have also appeared on the market.
On April 27, 2005,
Petters Group WorldwidePetters Group Worldwide is a diversified company based in Minnetonka, Minnesota. It currently has 3,200 employees and investments or full ownership in 60 companies, of which it actively managed 20, with offices in North America, South America, Asia, and Europe. Among its assets are Sun Country...
announced its acquisition of PHC. Petters has in the past bought up failed companies with well-known names for the value of those names. The same year,
FlextronicsFlextronics International Ltd. is an electronics manufacturing services provider that offers services to original equipment manufacturers...
purchased Polaroid's manufacturing operations and the decision was made to send most of the manufacturing to China. The "new" Polaroid Corporation filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on December 18, 2008.
Auction for Polaroid Corp's Assets
On April 2, 2009 Patriarch Partners LLC won an action for Polaroid Corporation's assets including the company's name, intellectual property, and photography collection. Patriarch' $59.1 million bid beat bids from PHC Acquisitions, Hilco Consumer Capital Corp and Ritchie Capital.
This led to some very contentious fighting and litigation, and Patriarch wound up walking away in early May, 2009, and a joint venture between Gordon Brothers Brands LLC and Hilco Consumer Capital LP picked up the pieces.
Quoting from a Reuters report which quoted some participants:
"The move by New York-based Patriarch, a private-equity firm, [to drop their claim], follows US District Judge James Rosenbaum's ruling on Thursday in Minneapolis that putting the purchase on hold during appeal would threaten operations at Polaroid, which is spending its cash at a rate of $3 million a month.
"Polaroid on April 16 won US Bankruptcy Court approval to be sold to a joint venture of Hilco Consumer Capital LP of Toronto and Gordon Brothers Brands LLC of Boston."
Corporate sponsorship of motorsports
In the 1990s, Polaroid was involved in the corporate sponsorship of NASCAR racing. For several years, Polaroid was the principal sponsor of NASCAR's 125 mile Featherlite Modified race at Watkins Glen and it
was called the "Polaroid 125". The Polaroid name was also used in sponsorship in the NASCAR Busch series. In 1992, Polaroid was the principal sponsor of female NASCAR driver
Shawna RobinsonShawna Robinson is a NASCAR driver. She currently does not have a ride.Robinson began her racing career in 1984 in the GATR Truck Series, winning rookie of the year honors in 1984 as well as a race at Flemington Speedway in 1987. She began racing NASCAR in 1988, when she was named Rookie of the...
's #25 Oldsmobile in the Busch Series. They continued as her principal sponsor when she moved to the other car numbers in 1993 and 1994. Polaroid currently sponsors the Target Chip Ganassi entries in the IRL Indy Car Series.
More recently, the Polaroid name has been associated with the NOPI drift series. Polaroid is currently the principal sponsor of the 350Z driven by Nick Bollea, who placed third in Pittsburgh and tenth in Denver at NOPI events in the 2007 season. Polaroid has chosen not to renew their sponsorship of Bollea for the 2008 season. No official reason has been given, but this decision was made in the wake of a serious accident and allegations of illegal street racing by Bollea.
Discontinuation and planned relaunch of Polaroid film
On February 8, 2008, Polaroid (under the control of Thomas J Petters of Petters Group Worldwide) announced that the company has decided to gradually cease production and withdraw from analog instant film products completely in 2008.
Austrian photographer Florian Kaps, the owner of the largest online vendor for SX-70 films and organizer of the web-based instant photo gallery Polanoid.net, had bought the approximately 500,000 film packages that were on stock. He teamed with André Bosman, a former head of film production in the large Polaroid film factory at
Enschede, also known as Eanske in the local dialect of Twents, is a municipality and a city in the eastern Netherlands in the province of Overijssel and in the Twente region...
, designed a plan to redesign the SX-70/600 film system in collaboration with
Ilford PhotoIlford Photo is a manufacturer of photographic materials known worldwide for its black-and-white film and papers and chemicals, as well as its range of Ilfochrome and Ilfocolor colour printing materials. Ilfochrome was formerly called Cibachrome, developed in partnership with Swiss company CIBA-Geigy...
, and convinced the Polaroid owners to participate. Plans for a relaunch under the Impossible label were announced in January 2009. Buildings in the Enschede plant, which had produced 30 million film packs in 2007 and 24 million in the first half of 2008, were leased to the company created by Kaps, who by May 2009 had raised $2.6 million from friends and family for what he had named The Impossible Project
At present work focuses on the development of a new type of film cartridge. The business plan calls for prototypes to be ready by the end of 2009, and for a rollout in 2010 with one million film packs produced. An output of 3 million packs is scheduled for 2011. Impossible will also look at developing new color films for 600 and SX-70 cameras, as well as new Image (or Spectra) films.
Digital photography
In summer 2008 Polaroid released the
PoGo, an instant photo printer producing 2 × 3 inch (5 × 7.5 cm) prints. It uses the ZINK ("zero ink") technology which is similar to dye sublimation but has the dye crystals embedded in the photo paper itself. In 2009 the CZA-05300B PoGo, a 5 megapixel digital camera integrated with a Zink printer, was released.
See also
- List of Polaroid instant cameras
- List of United States companies
- Instant camera
The instant camera is a type of camera with self-developing film. The most famous are those formerly made by Polaroid Corporation.The invention of modern instant cameras is generally credited to American scientist Edwin Land, who unveiled the first commercial instant camera, the Land Camera, in...
- Polaroid
Polaroid is the name of a type of synthetic plastic sheet which is used to polarize light.-Patent:The original material, patented in 1929 and further developed in 1932 by Edwin H. Land, consists of many microscopic crystals of iodoquinine sulfate embedded in a transparent nitrocellulose polymer...
- a type of light-polarising material developed by Edwin H. Land
- 3-D Film
In film, the term 3-D is used to describe any visual presentation system that attempts to maintain or recreate moving images of the third dimension, the illusion of depth as seen by the viewer....
- Polacolor
Polacolor was a post-World War II motion picture color process developed by the Polaroid Corporation. It used a three-color dye coupler on a single photographic emulsion....
- Polaroid Eyewear
Polaroid Eyewear manufactures polarized sunglasses and polarized lenses , as well as optical frames , reading glasses and Clip-Ons .The company also markets Polaroid Polarized Sunglasses, Polaroid Eyewear, Disney, Revlon and Sunmate eyewear....
External links