Gandalf
01-08-2005, 08:25 AM
Twin Cities entrepreneur Tom Petters plans to buy Polaroid Holding Co. for $426 million.
Waltham, Mass.-based Polaroid, best known for its instant picture cameras and sunglasses, has seen digital photography badly erode its market share.
"I'm really excited about it," Petters said from the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. "It's a great brand. It's a brand that has stayed in consumers' minds."
The Minnetonka-based Petters Group Worldwide plans to absorb Polaroid into its consumer brands business, which sells electronics and other goods to major retailers such as Wal-Mart, Target and Best Buy.
The two companies said they believe the deal will create a "global leader in imaging and consumer electronics" that will extend the Polaroid brand to products "for the digital age," such as plasma TVs.
Petters, 47, whose privately held company also owns the Fingerhut consumer catalog company and other specialty businesses, called the Polaroid deal his "biggest and probably the best one."
Polaroid introduced its first instant camera in 1948. Its sales peaked in 1991 with annual revenue of almost $3 billion. Competition from digital picture technology, a hostile takeover attempt and a major patent challenge led Polaroid to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2001, with about $1 billion in debt.
Waltham, Mass.-based Polaroid, best known for its instant picture cameras and sunglasses, has seen digital photography badly erode its market share.
"I'm really excited about it," Petters said from the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. "It's a great brand. It's a brand that has stayed in consumers' minds."
The Minnetonka-based Petters Group Worldwide plans to absorb Polaroid into its consumer brands business, which sells electronics and other goods to major retailers such as Wal-Mart, Target and Best Buy.
The two companies said they believe the deal will create a "global leader in imaging and consumer electronics" that will extend the Polaroid brand to products "for the digital age," such as plasma TVs.
Petters, 47, whose privately held company also owns the Fingerhut consumer catalog company and other specialty businesses, called the Polaroid deal his "biggest and probably the best one."
Polaroid introduced its first instant camera in 1948. Its sales peaked in 1991 with annual revenue of almost $3 billion. Competition from digital picture technology, a hostile takeover attempt and a major patent challenge led Polaroid to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2001, with about $1 billion in debt.