Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Bankrupt Polaroid Sold for $59 million (By Private Equity Company)
CNN ^

Posted on 04/02/2009 7:31:41 PM PDT by nickcarraway

Private equity firm Patriarch Partners snapped up the assets of the photography pioneer with a cult following.

New York-based private equity firm Patriarch Partners won the auction for bankrupt Polaroid Corp's assets, both companies said Thursday, with Patriarch winning over three rival bidders.

The result of the auction, which ended Tuesday, is subject to court approval at an April 6 hearing. The assets Patriarch is buying include the company's name, intellectual property, and photography collection.

It beat bids from PHC Acquisitions, Hilco Consumer Capital Corp and Ritchie Capital.

Patriarch's bid totaled $59.1 million, the company said.

"We look forward to reconnecting Polaroid with its history of innovation in photography," Lynn Tilton, chief executive of Patriarch Partners said in a statement.

"We intend to continue rebuilding the brand of this great American company on a worldwide scale and to re-establish Polaroid as a globally acknowledged innovator."

(Excerpt) Read more at money.cnn.com ...


TOPICS: Arts/Photography; Business/Economy; Hobbies
KEYWORDS: camera; film; polaroid

1 posted on 04/02/2009 7:31:41 PM PDT by nickcarraway
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: nickcarraway

What could Polaroid bring to the modern world of photography that isn’t there already? No one cares about instant print photography anymore.


2 posted on 04/02/2009 7:40:51 PM PDT by pnh102 (Save America - Ban Ethanol Now!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: pnh102

I suppose that you don’t like Studebaker automobiles either?


3 posted on 04/02/2009 7:50:08 PM PDT by Inyo-Mono (Had God not driven man from the Garden of Eden the Sierra Club surely would have.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: nickcarraway

4 posted on 04/02/2009 8:00:55 PM PDT by Always Right (Obama: more arrogant than Bill Clinton, more naive than Jimmy Carter, and more liberal than LBJ.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: pnh102
No one cares about instant print photography anymore.

Especially now that we have so many other ways to produce amateur naughty photos that don't require a trip to the drugstore.

5 posted on 04/02/2009 8:08:08 PM PDT by hunter112 (SHRUG - Stop Hussein's Radical Utopian Gameplan!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: pnh102
For a while there, I thought I saw some printers, and even displays with the Polaroid brand.

Not sure what they could bring to the table these days that is truly innovative, in their core field. The only thing they had going for them in photography was really the instant film processing. Their cameras weren't anything special. The German's and then Japanese blew them away in that category. And the Germans still rule in the area of specialized, high end photographic glass.

6 posted on 04/02/2009 8:18:23 PM PDT by AFreeBird
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: AFreeBird

They still have a “name”... for 59 mil, this is a steal. Just slap the Polaroid name on cheap chinese-made throw away cameras...


7 posted on 04/02/2009 8:28:07 PM PDT by Chet 99
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: AFreeBird

Polaroid, for a long time, was great at incrementally advancing the technology of instant print cameras and then viciously defending the patents. I had a Kodak (I believe it was Kodak) instant camera in the early 1980s. It was litigated out of existance by Polaroid. World history is full of instances where all of the rules changed. The dawn of digital photography was one of those and changed Polaroid from a stock to acquire into a worthless company.


8 posted on 04/02/2009 8:28:41 PM PDT by jimfree (Freep and ye shall find!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: jimfree

It was a Kodak. I had one.

What might be cool would be to mate the digital capture with an instant print.


9 posted on 04/02/2009 8:35:39 PM PDT by PLMerite ("Unarmed, one can only flee from Evil. But Evil isn't overcome by fleeing from it." Jeff Cooper)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: Always Right

I loved my Swinger camera!

http://ny-image1.etsy.com/il_430xN.26794965.jpg


10 posted on 04/02/2009 8:46:17 PM PDT by BigSkyVic
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: pnh102

There is still a market, albeit small, for polaroid instant film in the photographic community. I’m going to miss it.


11 posted on 04/02/2009 8:46:49 PM PDT by Karma Police ((optional, printed after your name on post))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: nickcarraway

The paperwork for this deal was ready in ninety-seconds.


12 posted on 04/02/2009 8:47:47 PM PDT by Petronski (For the next few years, Gethsemane will not be marginal. We will know that garden. -- Cdl. Stafford)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: PLMerite
What might be cool would be to mate the digital capture with an instant print.

I could see that, a few years back, maybe. But today, the consumer market is all about small cameras/camera phones, and there's no room for a decent sized print medium, when most just e-mail their picture to their friends anyway.

For serious photogs, amateur or pro, instant film was never really an option, except maybe as a shot setup tool for the real camera, but with digital SLR's, no need for it.

Polaroid's time has come and gone.

13 posted on 04/02/2009 8:53:12 PM PDT by AFreeBird
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: nickcarraway

14 posted on 04/02/2009 8:55:11 PM PDT by Liberty Valance (Keep a simple manner for a happy life)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Always Right; JoeProBono; Richard Kimball

15 posted on 04/02/2009 8:56:52 PM PDT by Liberty Valance (Keep a simple manner for a happy life)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: BigSkyVic

16 posted on 04/02/2009 8:57:55 PM PDT by BigSkyVic
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: Liberty Valance

17 posted on 04/02/2009 9:01:51 PM PDT by JoeProBono (A closed mouth gathers no feet)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 15 | View Replies]

To: Liberty Valance

One of the coolest cameras ever made. And I speak a a former professional photog who made money at the game.

Polaroid 4x5 and 8x1o film was a studio essential.


18 posted on 04/02/2009 11:42:45 PM PDT by Tainan (Where's my FOF Indicator?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 15 | View Replies]

To: pnh102

Sorry... I think many like myself, have a love art in photography. There is a quality and unique ability that film photography in all of it forms has to offer.
It will become a hobby of those who can afford to purchase it.
Funny... it was introduced at a price level that was well above the average family and progressed to a popularly priced item that all families could afford, only to be relegated back to the pleasure of those who will be able to afford this technology.

It will continue to be used in art, graphics and other media realms where it can be respected for what it is.


19 posted on 04/02/2009 11:47:56 PM PDT by antceecee (Bless us Father.. have mercy on us and protect us from evil.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Chet 99

“They still have a “name”... for 59 mil, this is a steal. Just slap the Polaroid name on cheap chinese-made throw away cameras...”

That’s what they’ve been doing for quite a while. The name has as much equity nowadays as RCA and Zenith.


20 posted on 04/03/2009 12:06:28 AM PDT by The Breaded Fish
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson