Eastman Kodak Co

Eastman Kodak Co. said it will reassign most of its 3,500 customer-service employees to various business units to make the service more effective. Customer-service workers not reassigned will be part of a central customer-service unit handling such functions as evaluating satisfaction companywide. It will be run by Frank DiOrio, who also heads service and support at the Consumer Imaging business. Cynthia Martin, president of the former global customer- service unit, resigned.

Eastman Kodak Co. said Wednesday its profit jumped 23% in the second quarter, better than Wall Street had expected, sparking a rally in the battered stock of the struggling company. Kodak, which has been suffering through a financial slump as it restructures, said it earned $451.4 million, or $1.38 a diluted share, up from $368 million, or $1.11, a year ago. The strength came despite an 8% drop in sales, to $3.54 billion, due partly to stiff competition from archrival Fuji Photo Film Co.

Eastman Kodak Co., struggling with a massive restructuring to focus on its core imaging business, announced a sharp drop in its fourth-quarter earnings Tuesday. Net earnings at the photography giant sank to $18 million, or 5 cents per share, for the fourth quarter, from $201 million, or 61 cents per share, for the year-ago period. The latest results include a $254-million after-tax restructuring charge, largely for cutting 4,000 jobs, most of them in foreign subsidiaries.

Kay Whitmore, who guided Eastman Kodak Co. for three years before being fired in 1993 for failing to cut costs fast enough to satisfy investors in the world's biggest photography company, has died. He was 72. Whitmore, who had been battling leukemia, died Monday at a Rochester, N.Y. hospital, the company said Tuesday. The cause of death was not disclosed. A chemical engineer by training, Whitmore joined Kodak in 1957, was elected president in 1983 and became chairman and chief executive in 1990.

Grappling with the rapid rise of digital photography, Eastman Kodak Co. unveiled another reorganization aimed at cutting costs and accelerating growth in both consumer and commercial imaging. Kodak hired Hewlett-Packard Co. veteran James Langley to run commercial printing operations. Bernard Masson, president of the Kodak Display Group, will head a new division that will oversee digital and applied imaging, entertainment imaging and consumer and professional imaging.

Ifilm, an Internet portal for short films and animations, said it has raised $10 million from an investment group including Eastman Kodak Co., Sony Pictures and Yahoo Inc. The infusion shores up Ifilm's financial position at a time when many investors are backing away from companies in the struggling online entertainment sector. Ifilm, based in Hollywood, offers links to thousands of short films and cartoons, as well as tools and information for entertainment-industry professionals.