Kodak Posts First Quarterly Loss

Eastman Kodak Co. today posted the first quarterly loss since the company’s founding in 1880, the result of a huge loss from its forced withdrawal from the instant photography business.

Kodak said it took a special pretax charge of $551 million in the fourth quarter, including $494 million associated with pulling out from instant photography. The big charge resulted in a net quarterly loss of $194 million for the world’s largest photography company, compared to net earnings of $204 million, or 87 cents a share, in the year-earlier period.