Eastman Kodak Co., best known for its manufacture of photographic film products, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in New York in January 2012. Kodak was founded in Rochester, New York in the 1880s. The company was a large employer in the area and worked to revolutionize modern photography, even inventing the digital camera in 1975. On September 3, 2013, Kodak successfully emerged from bankruptcy after exiting some businesses and getting rid of its legacy liabilities.

Is there hope for Kodak after bankruptcy?

As part of their bankruptcy agreement, Kodak stopped making the cameras that launched their business. One year later, the company announced their plan to exit from bankruptcy in mid-2013, and sold many of their patents to a group of companies to help them achieve this goal.

In September 2014, Kodak emerged with their first profit since coming out of bankruptcy protection in 2013. They chose to refocus their efforts on commercial imaging, including digital printers and motion-picture film. For their third quarter, they reported a profit of $17 million with revenue at $564 million. Should all go according to plan, Kodak will reach its goal of hitting $2.1 to 2.3 billion in sales by the end of the year.

The profit came in the face of a $43 million decrease in two of the company's businesses: Consumer Inkjet and the Entertainment Imaging film. This was offset by a $51 million increase in the company's non-recurring intellectual property licensing revenue. Their Graphics, Entertainment and Commercial films businesses increased their revenues to $400 million this quarter.

Kodak attributes this increase to their involvement in strategic technology areas, such as graphic businesses. However, while this shows promise for the future of the company, top Kodak officials are quick to note that the company continues to operate too close to their breakeven point and must continue doing significant amounts of work to ensure they stay afloat.