Polaroid

Polaroid Corp., facing a deteriorating film and instant-camera business, said it will cut about 2,000 jobs, or 25% of its global work force, over the next 18 months in a bid to reduce debt and return to profitability. The cuts will include 1,000 jobs in the United States, most of them in Massachusetts, and will hit administrative as well as line employees, the company said.

George Wheelwright III, a co-founder of the company that became Polaroid Corp., died Feb. 27 at a nursing home here. He was 97. Wheelwright joined with Edwin Land to develop a lens that could polarize light--technology that was the basis for glare-free sunglasses and instant photography. Born in Ware, Mass., Wheelwright and his brother Joseph, who became a noted Jungian psychiatrist, started a boys camp in Santa Barbara.

Ratings on about $920 million in Polaroid (PRD) corporate debt were cut by Standard & Poor's, a week after the company reduced its profit forecast for the second time since September. The credit-rating agency said it is concerned that the world's largest instant-photography company will be weakened as sales of its traditional products decline and Polaroid relies more on new products with shorter life cycles.

Shares of Eastman Kodak Co. and Polaroid Corp. took a beating Tuesday after the shine on the industry's "digital halo" was tarnished by an earnings surprise and euro worries. Kodak shares tumbled 25%, the biggest decline since the stock market crash of October 1987. Per-share profit will be as much as 15% below the highest estimate given to analysts. Fourth-quarter profit forecasts may have to be revised lower if the current sales trend continues, Kodak said.

Polaroid Corp. had cameras that made instant prints and digital cameras that took instant pictures. Now it has one camera that does both. Polaroid announced an agreement with Japanese camera maker Olympus Inc. to jointly produce a digital camera that prints instant pictures on Polaroid film. The camera, called the C-211 Zoom, will be released this fall and will sell for about $800.

It is the first dark day of the New Year. A solitary jogger runs down the street, through riots and traffic jams, past ATM machines spouting cash, under a streaking missile. Finally, another jogger passes him, running the other way. They nod briefly in greeting, and each continues on his way. The message? "Just do it." The Nike commercial, called "The Morning After," is the latest way some advertisers use or spoof the supposedly looming Y2K disaster.

Stock Exchange gives readers a chance to listen in as staff writers James Peltz and Michael Hiltzik debate the merits of individual stocks. Ford Motor Co. (F) Jim: Doesn't seem that long ago, Mike, that Ford and the other U.S. auto makers were in dire straits, but that's changed considerably in recent years. Both Ford and its stock have been on a tear lately. Mike: It's not that often you find a company like Ford that's both an industrial giant and also a "story stock." Jim: The story being?

Polaroid Corp. on Tuesday said profit again will lag forecasts as Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Kmart Corp. and other retailers buy less of its instant-photography cameras and film. It's the third straight quarter that Polaroid's results will miss analyst expectations. Polaroid projected earnings of 55 cents to 60 cents a share for the second quarter, less than the 76-cent average estimate of analysts polled by IBES International Inc. It said profit in all of 1998 will be about $2.