Kodak Chief Executive to Step Down

George Fisher, the onetime darling of Wall Street who struggled to pull Eastman Kodak Co. into the Digital Age, will step down as chief executive of the giant photography company, effective Jan. 1. In a move long expected, the company’s board said that Fisher will be succeeded by his handpicked successor, Kodak veteran Daniel Carp. The switch comes at a time when Kodak is groping its way toward a digital future. The move also comes toward the end of Kodak’s deep cost-cutting program designed to stem losses in film sales to Japan’s Fuji Film Co. Fuji is closing in on 20% of the U.S. film business, a humbling blow for a company that once held a virtual monopoly. Rochester, N.Y.-based Kodak finally began to slow Fuji’s rise last year by cutting about 20,000 jobs, close to 20% of the work force, so it could sell film at lower prices. Fisher has been with Kodak since 1993. Although his time there was a difficult one, he kept the company profitable, sold off businesses Kodak had no reason to own, including a drug firm, and used the money to pay down debt, analysts noted. Kodak closed up 25 cents at $69.75 on the New York Stock Exchange.