Photography icon Eastman Kodak Co said it is ending its role as a top corporate sponsor of the Olympics after next summer's games in Beijing.
The company, which is undergoing a difficult digital overhaul, cited a shift in marketing tactics for ending a relationship that dates back to the first modern games in Athens in 1896, when it ran advertisements in the scoring program.
"As we complete the transformation of Kodak, it makes sense for us to take a new direction," Kodak director of brand management Elizabeth Noonan said on Friday.
"Digital technology changes everything, including the way we market our products and services," she said.
Kodak, the world's top maker of photographic film, is one of 12 sponsors in The Olympic Program, the top tier of corporations that each spend tens of millions of dollars for rights to market the Olympic logo.
Other major global Olympic sponsors include Coca-Cola, McDonald's, General Electric and Visa.
In Beijing, Kodak will provide an imaging center for photojournalists, a diagnostic center to treat athlete injuries and Olympic identification badges for thousands of athletes, officials, journalists and volunteers at the event.
Kodak signed an eight-year agreement valued at more than US$100 million to continue as a global sponsor for the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City, the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, the 2006 Winter Games in Turin and the 2008 Summer Games.
While the Olympics are "a great way to build a global brand," Kodak spokesman David Lanzillo said, "they also lock us into promotional activities within a finite time period."
"We fully plan to reinvest those marketing dollars into other activities that more directly connect us with our customers over a much broader time period," he said.
The picture-taking pioneer is applying the finishing touches to a drastic, four-year digital makeover.
Kodak has piled up nearly US$3.2 billion in restructuring charges and accumulated US$2.1 billion in net losses over the last 11 quarters.
Its workforce will slip to approximately 34,000 at the end of this year, half what it was five years ago.
Three experts in the high technology industry have said that US President Donald Trump’s pledge to impose higher tariffs on Taiwanese semiconductors is part of an effort to force Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) to the negotiating table. In a speech to Republicans on Jan. 27, Trump said he intends to impose tariffs on Taiwan to bring chip production to the US. “The incentive is going to be they’re not going to want to pay a 25, 50 or even a 100 percent tax,” he said. Darson Chiu (邱達生), an economics professor at Taichung-based Tunghai University and director-general of
‘LEGACY CHIPS’: Chinese companies have dramatically increased mature chip production capacity, but the West’s drive for secure supply chains offers a lifeline for Taiwan When Powerchip Technology Corp (力晶科技) entered a deal with the eastern Chinese city of Hefei in 2015 to set up a new chip foundry, it hoped the move would help provide better access to the promising Chinese market. However, nine years later, that Chinese foundry, Nexchip Semiconductor Corp (合晶集成), has become one of its biggest rivals in the legacy chip space, leveraging steep discounts after Beijing’s localization call forced Powerchip to give up the once-lucrative business making integrated circuits for Chinese flat panels. Nexchip is among Chinese foundries quickly winning market share in the crucial US$56.3 billion industry of so-called legacy
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday held its first board of directors meeting in the US, at which it did not unveil any new US investments despite mounting tariff threats from US President Donald Trump. Trump has threatened to impose 100 percent tariffs on Taiwan-made chips, prompting market speculation that TSMC might consider boosting its chip capacity in the US or ramping up production of advanced chips such as those using a 2-nanometer technology process at its Arizona fabs ahead of schedule. Speculation also swirled that the chipmaker might consider building its own advanced packaging capacity in the US as part
A move by US President Donald Trump to slap a 25 percent tariff on all steel imports is expected to place Taiwan-made steel, which already has a 25 percent tariff, on an equal footing, the Taiwan Steel & Iron Industries Association said yesterday. Speaking with CNA, association chairman Hwang Chien-chih (黃建智) said such an equal footing is expected to boost Taiwan’s competitive edge against other countries in the US market, describing the tariffs as "positive" for Taiwanese steel exporters. On Monday, Trump signed two executive orders imposing the new metal tariffs on imported steel and aluminum with no exceptions and exemptions, effective