Investigation Clears Kodak, Stock Surges

The COVID-19 pandemic has placed renewed emphasis on manufacturing some critical healthcare components domestically rather than turning to the international market during times of crisis.

Photo by fotografierende from Pexels.

An example of this is the US government’s promotion of PPE and other medical equipment being produced in the United States.

One recipient of such a loan was none other than Kodak, a company with substantial facilities in chemical processing for film. As you can imagine, it doesn’t quite need that infrastructure as much these days.

If you missed our reporting on this, you can check out our first article here.

The company pivoted towards pharmaceutical chemicals production as the novel coronavirus outbreak placed strains on global supply chains.

Kodak’s stock, meanwhile, soared on the news, rising some 3000% on the news of the receipt of a government loan to help the company transition into this new market.

What spurred an investigation into the loan was not only the stock’s spectacular (and sudden) rise, but also the people who were receiving before it soared to new heights. The day prior to the news, the CEO of Kodak, Jim Continenza, was awarded shares in the company, FStoppers reports.

The US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) initiated the investigation. They reportedly found no evidence of wrongdoing on anyone’s part thus clearing the way for the $USD 765 million to be disbursed to the company.

There is some belief though that all of this could have been avoided. As we reported a while back, the reception of the news on Wall Street was met with bafflement more than anything. You can read that article here.

What do you think of Kodak’s reinvention of itself as a pharmaceutical chemicals company? Let us know your thoughts on this story in the comments section below.

Don’t forget to check out our other photography news at this link here.

[FStoppers]

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Kehl is our staff photography news writer since 2017 and has over a decade of experience in online media and publishing and you can get to know him better here and follow him on Insta.

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