I agree with what Pete says "they did it to theirselves" but I am not so sure about the suicide idea. Here is why...yes Kodak did develop the first digital camera and they did make digital cameras from day one of the digital age, but and it is a huge but too, their main money maker for a really long time was film...they hadn't led in camera manufacturing per se since the explosion of 35mm format. Along came Leica and Zeiss and Nippon kokguru or whatever Nikons original name was and Canon and Pentax and on and on and on...so you see they began to concentrate on film big time by the 50s. In '75 when Steven Sasson who was a ripe 25 years old and working in some obscure engineering department at Kodak started the project that led to the first digital camera. They shelved the idea at the time because film was making record profits for the company...why shoot themselves in the foot right? That strategy was sound and held for many years until early 90's when digital technology became practical and affordable...remember even as late as 1991 Kodak released the very first DSLR called the DCS which was a Nikon F3 that was tethered to rather large box like structure that housed the processor. The F3 used a specially modified back that was rated at 1 megapixel...it cost 20 grand! 1991! OK 5 years later in 95 Apple decides they want to build a digital camera they design it Kodak manufactures it and brands their own version of it...a few megapixels color and it goes for under a 1000 bucks...one of the first "consumer" digital cameras available...1995...
They couldn't read the writing on the wall...film was obsolete...or maybe they could read it crystal clear...back in 95 I think they felt they could ride it out for another ten years and they made it 15...also the media is not really telling the whole story...Kodak for a long time has really been sort of two companies one the chemical part and the other film and camera division...well the chemical part has been the most profitable segment of the company for a long long time...it was spun off from the main company a few years ago...it is safe.
They have a buttload of patents which they are going to get huge bucks for...they're going to be just fine...it's all a bunch of hoopla and all of you guys oughtta know this better than most...Kodak is bankrupt. Big frigging whoop! Film is obsolete so it makes perfect sense that a company that makes film will fail.
You all know me to be a film shooter. Well if you ask me I could care less Kodak went kaput I'll still be able to get film for a long long time yet...