Polaroid Corporation
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The Polaroid Corporation was founded in 1937 by Edwin H. Land. It is most famous for its instant film cameras, which reached the market in 1948, and continue to be the company's flagship product line. The company's original dominant market was in polarized sunglasses, an outgrowth of Land's self-guided research in polarization after leaving Harvard University at the age of 17 (he later returned to Harvard to continue his research).
After Polaroid defeated Kodak in a patent battle, Kodak left the instant camera business on January 9, 1986.
Polaroid managed to develop an instant movie system, Polavision, based on the Dufay color process. The product was too late to market and had to compete with the upcoming video based systems. As a result most of the manufactured product was sold off as a job lot.
The company entered the digital photography market late in the game, and as a result has neither a significant market share nor significant innovation in this area.
The company filed for federal bankruptcy protection in October 11, 2001, and most of the business was thereafter carried on by the Polaroid Holding Company (PHC), managed by Bank One. Significant criticism surrounded this takeover because the process left executives of the company with large bonuses, while stockholders, as well as current and retired employees, were left with nothing. Polaroid's bankruptcy was widely believed to be the result of the failure of its senior management to see the effect of digital cameras on its film business, a fate that also befell its primary rival, Kodak.
The Polaroid brand name
Since the bankruptcy, the brand name has been licensed for use on other products. In September 2002, World Wide Licenses, a subsidiary of The Character Group plc, was granted the exclusive rights for three years to manufacture and sell digital cameras under the Polaroid brand for distribution internationally. Polaroid branded LCDs and plasma televisions and portable DVD players have also appeared on the market.
On April 27, 2005, Petters Group Worldwide announced its acquisition of PHC. Petters has in the past bought up failed companies with well-known names for the value of those names. The same year, Flextronics purchased Polaroid's manufacturing operations and the decision was made to send most of the manufacturing to China. [link]
See also
- List of Polaroid instant cameras
- List of United States companies
- Instant camera
- Polaroid - a type of light-polarising material developed by Edwin H. Land
- 3-D Film
- Polacolor
External links
- [Company home page]
- [Company history]
- [On the Polaroid bankruptcy]
- [Polaroid & Corporate Bankruptcy]
- [The Branding of Polaroid] - Paul Giambarba on Polaroid's branding, including background information on the company
- [World Wide Licenses press release (pdf)]
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