The billions of images on Eastman Kodak Co.’s Kodak Gallery could become Shutterfly Inc. photos.
Kodak announced Thursday it had a $23.8 million offer from the California-based online photo gallery company to buy Kodak Gallery.
Under the terms of Kodak’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy, the Shutterfly offer is the “staking horse bid,” or initial bid.
Whether Shutterfly or a higher bidder ultimately buys Kodak Gallery, Kodak hopes to close on a sale by the end of spring, company spokesman Christopher Veronda said Thursday.
According to Kodak, it plans “a smooth transition” of its 75 million accounts to Shutterfly.
“No worries about your photos,” Veronda said.
Veronda could not say how many images are stored on Kodak Gallery.
Kodak Gallery’s origins trace to the company’s 2001 purchase of online photo gallery company Ofoto. Eventually renamed Kodak Gallery, it has been a struggling operation for years. Kodak in 2009 lumped it, its toner-based commercial printers, organic light-emitting diodes and image sensors together as business lines in need of some kind of major revamp. And since then, Kodak has sold off many of those same businesses, including its image sensor and OLED operations.
Under the terms of Kodak Gallery, people can store up to two gigabytes worth of photos if they make a purchase of prints or other photo merchandise totaling at least $5 a year, and more than two gigabytes for annual purchases of $20 or more. Kodak had offered unlimited free storage until adding the fees in 2009.
Shutterfly offers free unlimited storage of photos.