Struggling OEM sells photo website to rival Shutterfly as company shift focus from photography to printing.
Following filing for bankruptcy in January and announcing its plans to move away from the photography industry, Kodak sold its photo sharing and printing website, Kodak Gallery to its 13-year long competitor Shutterfly earlier this year for $23.8 million (€18.9 million), with the website officially going offline earlier this week after 12 years, reports The Wall Street Journal.
Kodak bought the website, previously Ofoto Inc., in 2001 and subsequently re-launched it as Kodak Gallery. However, those logging onto the website will now be automatically re-directed to Shutterfly’s website, who assert that Kodak Gallery’s 75 million users will still be able to keep all of their photos, which will begin to be transferred to the new website from mid-July.
Kodak’s survival will largely be determined by the outcome of an auction of its digital patent portfolio, purportedly worth as much as $2.6 billion (€2 billion). The auction was approved this week despite opposition from Kodak licensees over claims that the sell-off excludes licensee protection, and is due to take place on 8 August.