blogombal Chapter 553 553: CH554
Chapter 553 553: CH554
"Whoa!"
"Nice!"
"That's it. I knew this would happen!"
The trading floor of the Eldorado Fund in southern Manhattan erupted. Dozens of traders stared at the market board, now drenched in red like someone had splashed blood across it, and threw their fists into the air with shouts of excitement.
Just yesterday, dot-com stocks had been powering upward, reclaiming Nasdaq 4,000 and charging toward new highs. But after Amazon's earnings shock, those same stocks were collapsing in a vertical drop.
"Nokia is plunging too. The outlook says their numbers won't be good next quarter!"
With investor sentiment already shaken by Amazon's earnings disaster, the world's largest mobile communications company adding a gloomy guidance only deepened the market's anxiety.
"Well, look at that. Even Nokia is calling for weaker numbers. It's like someone slapped a crying man twice, and hard."
Landon stared at the crimson market board, awe spreading across his face.
Andrew, standing beside him, burst out laughing as if their short bet had already succeeded.
"Right? The market's biggest fear was an earnings breakdown, and now it's happening. Panic is going to snowball."
Landon nodded.
"If the index hadn't bent this much, maybe things would be different. But after the last crash, everyone's already tasted fear. No one wants to live through that again, so they'll dump their stocks without hesitation."
"It's not just Amazon and Nokia. Other tech stocks are falling by double digits. The way the decline is spreading, it's obvious people are panic-selling."
"If it were me, I'd dump everything first and watch from the sidelines too."
Landon turned to Dan, the senior chief investor with a headset resting around his neck and a white shirt clinging to his shoulders.
"Well? Didn't you say all I needed to do was trust the boss and follow his lead?"
He grinned, showing off a full set of white teeth.
Dan had sold their entire position at the bottom, just as Seok-won instructed. He had watched the market for days, torn between nerves and unease. Now the sudden reversal left him stunned.
"We should see if the crash continues, but… I don't know how else to describe it. His ability to read the market is unbelievable."
Landon's eyes curved in satisfaction, as if to say told you so.
"The boss always sees three or four moves ahead of us. Didn't I tell you that?"
"Looks like you were right."
Dan shook his head as he answered.
"Alright. I'll report the situation to the boss in Korea. You two keep watching the market."
"Understood."
"Yes, sir."
With their replies behind him, Landon left the trading floor, his steps light. On the large market board at his back, dot-com stocks continued to sink deeper. The shock from the earnings miss hadn't eased at all; the losses were growing by the minute.
***
[IMF warns US economy is overheating, urges interest rate hike!]
Seok-won was sipping fresh espresso from the machine and reading the front-page headline when his phone buzzed on the island counter.
He picked it up. Landon's bright voice came through.
[Did you check the closing prices today?]
Seok-won gave a faint smile and set the morning paper aside.
"The jobs report came in weak, so the three major indexes stopped their week-long slide and bounced a little. But once the second-quarter US GDP number came out, they all fell hard again."
[GDP growth blew past the expected 3.5 to 4.0 percent and came in at 5.2. Any hope that the Fed might pause or even cut rates just vanished. Because of that, the Nasdaq dropped more than a hundred points.]
Phone still at his ear, Seok-won glanced again at the bold headline on the newspaper.
"To be honest, even I didn't expect GDP to come in that strong. The market must have been shaken."
[That's right. The market looks terrible, but with GDP growth above five percent, the Fed can't cut rates now.]
"Exactly. If anything, like the IMF warned, they may have to raise rates to keep inflation in check."
[Dot-com companies already revealed they aren't making real money this earnings season, and now the rate-cut hope is gone too. Unless some major good news comes out, it'll be hard for the market to recover from this downturn.]
"Even if good news comes, it won't matter if fear and panic are stronger. That kind of atmosphere is hard to reverse."
[I agree.]
Seok-won shifted the phone in his hand and asked calmly,
"Durable goods orders and unemployment numbers come out next week, right?"
[Yes. If both reports beat expectations again, we'll see another wave of heavy selling.]
"Both durable-goods data and unemployment are important indicators of economic conditions, but they're backward-looking because of how long they take to collect and analyze. They'll probably come in just as strong as GDP."
Landon heard the certainty in his voice and lowered his tone, sounding more serious.
[If it plays out like you say, the Nasdaq might break the previous low of thirty-two hundred and drop even further.]
"It will."
His answer came without hesitation. Landon pictured an awful crash and a total market breakdown and swallowed hard.
Seok-won, meanwhile, had just predicted a global economic crisis yet sounded as calm as ever as he changed the subject.
"By the way, how are things going with Kodak?"
It was impressive how composed he remained, even with tens of billions of dollars on the line.
Landon let out a silent sigh of disbelief and answered with a troubled tone.
[Kodak agreed to sell more than a thousand digital-camera-related patents they owns, but their demands are excessive.]
"How much do they want?"
[They want the right to keep using the patents freely without paying any licensing fees even after selling them, and on top of that, they want 1.1 billion dollars in cash.]
It was surprising to many, but the company that invented the digital camera—the very device that ended the age of film—was none other than Eastman Kodak, the dominant force of the analog film world.
And they invented it all the way back in 1975.
Realizing how revolutionary the technology was, Kodak's leadership registered a patent under the name Electronic Still Camera, securing rights over the fundamental components of digital photography: the sensor, digital conversion, storage, and playback.
In short, anyone who wanted to make a digital camera had no choice but to use Kodak's patents.
But that was as far as their smart decisions went.
Kodak kept pouring money into the field and filed more than a thousand related patents over the years. But as technology advanced and digital cameras finally became practical, the company fell into a serious dilemma.
If the digital camera market grew, it would cannibalize their core business: analog film.
Kodak couldn't bring themselves to abandon a business that still generated huge cash, so they sat on the very technology they had pioneered instead of pushing it into the market. They hesitated, and the industry passed them by.
By the time they woke up and jumped into the digital-camera race, they made a completely wrong strategic choice.
Instead of focusing on cameras, they assumed the digital printing market—ink, photo paper, and printers—would explode, so that's where they poured their resources.
When their cash reserves couldn't cover the spending anymore, they issued hundreds of millions of dollars in corporate bonds and kept investing, even acquiring an online image platform.
Seeing Kodak's financial health deteriorating at a frightening pace, Seok-won had made the first move and offered to buy their patents.
If luck was on his side, he could acquire the golden goose—the digital camera patents—at a bargain.
He hadn't expected much. It was little more than a casual attempt. But when he heard Kodak was willing to sell, his eyes lit up.
"So, they said they would sell the patents for 1.1 billion dollars?"
[That's right. But asking for that much and demanding the right to keep using the patents freely afterward is absurd.]
Landon sounded irritated, his brow tightening. Kodak's demands came off as outright greedy, and he clearly didn't like it.
Since smartphones didn't exist yet, his concerns made sense.
"If Kodak somehow dominated the digital camera market, we'd end up buying the patents for a fortune and still be stuck watching them take all the profits."
[Japanese companies like Sony already have the lead. It won't be easy for Kodak, a latecomer, to grab a large share.]
"They may be late, but they still hold the core technology, and they've been working on it for years. They could close the gap quickly, couldn't they?"
Unlike Landon, who looked at the situation optimistically, Seok-won already knew Kodak's future and couldn't share his view.
"If they focused solely on digital cameras, maybe things could go that way. But as you know, Kodak isn't prioritizing cameras. They're betting everything on the digital printing market."
[That's true. The financial strain they're under now is because they poured too much money into that sector—investments, acquisitions, everything.]
Carrying his mug, Seok-won walked into the living room.
"They're right that the digital image era is coming, and they're trying to follow it. But they've chosen the wrong direction."
[What do you mean?]
Standing by the window, he looked outside and took a sip of coffee.
"Up until now, people developed photos, kept them carefully in albums, and pulled them out on special occasions to revisit memories. But going forward, people won't store those memories in albums anymore. They'll keep their photos and videos through digital means."
[You mean instead of albums, they'll save everything on a computer?]
"Not just computers. It could be other electronic devices, or even online storage."
But on the other end of the line, Landon didn't sound convinced.
[That might happen, but isn't that too far in the future?]
"Not right away, of course. But it won't take as long as you think."
Landon still couldn't quite picture it, but since it didn't affect the immediate decision, he let it slide and returned to the main issue.
[Even so, when you consider the size of the digital camera market, 1.1 billion dollars is an excessive price. And we wouldn't be able to collect licensing fees from Kodak either.]
Hearing that, Seok-won held the phone to his ear and let a faint, meaningful smile appear.
"It may seem expensive now, but a few years from today, you'll think it was a bargain."
[…What?]
"And since I sold my Amazon shares at the peak, we have plenty of cash. Just give them what they want and secure the patents."
At the height of the dot-com frenzy, Seok-won had sold all the Amazon shares he personally held—through a block deal that earned even a premium—collecting 7.55 billion dollars.
He had invested only 50 million dollars before the IPO, and in just a few years it had returned more than fifteen times the amount.
[Then at least let me try to negotiate some limits—maybe set a time restriction on their free usage, or get them to pay a small fee.]
"If you push them like that, Kodak might decide not to sell the patents at all, especially if they think the digital camera market will grow. Just give them what they want."
[But wouldn't that put us at a huge disadvantage?]
"Add one special clause to the contract."
[What kind of clause?]
Looking at his reflection in the window, Seok-won let the corner of his mouth lift slightly.
"If Kodak shuts down its film business, their right to use the patents freely—without paying any licensing fees—will be revoked."
[Even with digitalization, analog film will still be used for at least ten more years. Isn't that clause basically meaningless?]
"You'll understand soon enough."
Landon clicked his tongue, sounding resigned.
[Understood. If that's what you want, I'll proceed with the contract as instructed.]
When the call ended, Seok-won lowered the phone and stared out at the city lights beyond the glass wall.
"The devil is always in the details."
Just as Landon didn't see the importance of the clause, Kodak would likely overlook it as well.
But knowing that this seemingly minor provision would make Kodak's executives regret their decision in just a few years made a deep smile spread across Seok-won's face.
Then another thought crossed his mind, and he murmured to himself,
"Now that I think about it… 1.1 billion dollars is the same amount Lone Star used to acquire Korea Exchange Bank in my previous life before they went bankrupt."
TL/n -
Rise of Kodak (1880s–1970s)
1888: George Eastman founded Kodak with the slogan "You press the button, we do the rest."
He made photography simple, cheap and universal.
By mid-1900s:
Kodak controlled 80–90% of the U.S. film market.
Kodak controlled 70% of the global camera market.
Film and paper prints brought the highest profit margins in the industry.
Kodak became a global giant, almost synonymous with photography.
Kodak invents the digital camera (1975)
Steven Sasson, a young Kodak engineer, built the world's first digital camera prototype in December 1975.
It used:
A 100×100 pixel CCD sensor
A cassette tape for image storage
A portable digital playback system
When Sasson demonstrated it, Kodak executives reacted with confusion and fear.
Kodak patents digital photography (1978)
Kodak filed a landmark patent titled:
"Electronic Still Camera"
This patent covered the core of all digital imaging:
Electronic sensor
Digital conversionImage storage
Digital playback
This single patent later brought them over $5 billion in licensing revenue.
Internal battles (1980s–1990s)
Kodak's engineers pushed for digital.
Kodak's executives resisted.
Why executives resisted:
Film produced huge recurring profits (buy film → shoot → develop → print → repeat).
Digital meant no film, no prints, no processing.
Kodak feared digital would kill its golden goose before they found a new profit engine.
Executives essentially said:
"Digital is the future, but we'll lose money if we lead that future."
So Kodak invented digital tech—but did not champion it.
Competition moves faster (late 1990s–2000s)
While Kodak protected film, rivals attacked digital aggressively:
Sony
Dominated consumer digital cameras
Invested early in sensors
Shifted video + still cameras to digital
Canon & Nikon
Built powerful DSLR platforms
Pushed image quality far beyond Kodak
Became the gold standard for professionals
Fujifilm
Embraced digital early
Diversified into cosmetics, chemicals, displays
Survived and thrived
Meanwhile, Kodak depended too heavily on:
Film sales
Printing revenue
Disposable cameras
All of these collapsed.
Peak and collapse
Digital cameras became mainstream after 2000.
Kodak's revenue crash:
Film sales dropped 90% from 2000 to 2010
Digital camera margins were too low to replace lost film profits
Smartphones destroyed point-and-shoot cameras entirely
Kodak couldn't pivot fast enough.
Bankruptcy (2012)
Kodak filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on January 19, 2012.
They sold:
Patents
Film businesses
Digital camera lines
Many assets they once dominated
Kodak emerged later as a small company focused on:
Industrial printing
Films for Hollywood
Specialty materials
Chemical coatings
But the Kodak empire never returned.