Dow Jones recently ran the notion in its bankruptcy services that certain common stockholders believe that the patents could be worth more than the $3.4 billion to $4.0 billion that the company has projected. We think that this is an interesting view because most public company bankruptcies like this generally wipe out the common holders.
Shutterfly, Inc. (NASDAQ: SFLY) was recently reported on winning a stalking horse bid for Kodak’s digital portfolio and shares have risen handily since that news came out. It turns out that a few million spent will generate millions of new accounts and shares are now up almost 20% since then.
Creating a shareholder committee would not assure that there is value left. It may help, but this bankruptcy process is still far from over. At $0.29, Kodak’s OTC stock is only a penny above its 52-week low per Yahoo! Finance data. That is not representative of a lot of value, but it is at least not just a few cents as many other bankruptcy stocks go down to.
We are still considering this one a work in process.
JON C. OGG