(MSNBC)- The company that invented home photography has tossed in the towel on it.
Eastman Kodak, the bankrupt inventor of the hand-held camera, plans to stop making digital cameras, pocket video cameras and digital picture frames in the first half of 2012 in a bid to cut costs.
The move marks the end of an era for Kodak, which is seen as one of the biggest corporate casualties of the digital age, after it failed to quickly embrace modern technologies such as digital photography, a product that it also invented.
Kodak filed for bankruptcy protection last month. It said Thursday that its plan to stop making cameras and frames would mean "significant" job losses at the business, which employs 400 people, mostly in Rochester, N.Y.
Kodak will take a charge of about $30 million to leave the business. It expects the exit to generate more than $100 million in annual operating savings. The charge does not include additional costs that Kodak expects to incur for items such ending manufacturing contracts with overseas companies that make its products.
