The new year isn’t getting off to a good start for the photo folks at Eastman Kodak Co., which is reportedly preparing to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection if it can’t unload a pile of its patents on buyers in the next few weeks.

According to the Wall Street Journal’s sources, Kodak, which never fully recovered from consumers’ switch from film to digital photography, is trying to talk lenders into forking over around $1 billion in debtor-in-possession to keep the company (and its approximately 19,000 employees) working during the bankruptcy process.

At the same time, Kodak is also trying to sell off around 1,100 patents to raise enough cash to stave off having to file for bankruptcy at all. The Journal reports that the patent sale-off is inevitable; it’s just a matter of if it will happen in time to prevent entering Chapter 11 or if the patents will have to be sold off through a court-supervised bankruptcy auction.

Kodak Preparing for Chapter 11 Filing [WSJ.com]

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