Word: kodaks
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Tiny Berkey kayos Kodak in first antitrust round
...hardest fighting trim, had been flattened by some tank-town lightweight. Berkey Photo, a financially rickety New York-based photo-products manufacturer and retailer of cameras, film and chemicals, with sales of about $200 million a year, won a favorable jury verdict in a marathon antitrust action against Eastman Kodak (1976 sales: $5.4 billion). During the trial, which lasted six months, Berkey claimed that it had been grievously damaged by Kodak's alleged monopoly power; Berkey lost $24.2 million in the first nine months of 1977. To the astonishment of many legal experts, the jury agreed, finding that Kodak...
...trying to dispose of his company's unprofitable camera-manufacturing division, crowed: "I am delighted with the verdict." However, he will have to wait awhile for any money. The jury will not meet until Feb. 21 to decide on an award (Berkey is seeking $900 million). More important, Kodak Chairman Walter Fallen told his top managers at headquarters in Rochester that Kodak will appeal, be vindicated and continue to operate "as we have in the past...
That is not only hubris. Nothing is certain in the murky field of antitrust law, and cases move glacially; the appeal may take several years to decide. And Kodak, with its enormous resources-$780 million in cash and marketable securities -will doubtless fight with fury to preserve the principle, as Fallen sees it, that the antitrust laws should not insulate competitors from the rigors of the marketplace...
...Kodak lawyers contended that the company had reached its pre-eminent position in the industry through skill, foresight and creative research. Far from being an invulnerable monopoly, lawyers claimed, Kodak was losing market share in pocket cameras, photographic paper and photo-finishing products. Said the lawyers: "In cameras, the competition is simply amazing...