Kodak sells its image sensor unit to stay in business

Kodak announced today that it will be selling its image sensor solutions business to Platinum Equity in order to get closer to the cash targets required to keep the company afloat. Last month, Kodak licensed out its projector patents to IMAX for the same reason. The company has been struggling and could go out of business by next year if it doesn't shore up more money from asset sales.

The price of the sale was not disclosed, but Kodak confirmed today that the deal had closed. The company also assured that it was only selling the assets that would not impact its ability to turn itself around into a profitable and sustainable digital company. It would continue to have access to the image sensor technology that was sold as part of the deal.

The technology is used in manufacturing a wide range of high performance solid state image sensor devices and applications, including precision manufacturing inspection, digital radiography, earth imaging satellites, traffic monitoring, DNA sequencing, and studio photography.

Kodak is aiming to gather up $1.3 to $1.4 billion in cash by the end of the year, assuming that it would sell about $200 million in assets that are not central to its operations.

[via WSJ]