AgfaPhoto GmbH is a Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

an photographic company, formed in 2004 when Agfa-Gevaert

Agfa-Gevaert

Agfa-Gevaert N.V. is a European multinational corporation that develops, manufactures, and distributes analogue and digital imaging products and systems, as well as IT solutions. The company has three divisions. Agfa Graphics offers integrated prepress and industrial inkjet systems to the...

 sold their Consumer Imaging division. Agfa (the former parent company, which merged with film manufacturer Gevaert in 1964) had for many years been well known as a producer of consumer-oriented photographic products including film

Film

A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...

s, photographic paper

Photographic paper

Photographic paper is paper coated with light-sensitive chemicals, used for making photographic prints.Photographic paper is exposed to light in a controlled manner, either by placing a negative in contact with the paper directly to produce a contact print, by using an enlarger in order to create a...

s and camera

Camera

A camera is a device that records and stores images. These images may be still photographs or moving images such as videos or movies. The term camera comes from the camera obscura , an early mechanism for projecting images...

s. However, within a year of the sell-off, AgfaPhoto had filed for bankruptcy

Bankruptcy

Bankruptcy is a legal status of an insolvent person or an organisation, that is, one that cannot repay the debts owed to creditors. In most jurisdictions bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debtor....

.

The various product brands are now being licenced to various companies by the holding firm AgfaPhoto Holding GmbH. Minilab service and chemicals are e.g. now sold by A&O Imaging Solutions, and AgfaPhoto Vista Brand Film is sold by Lupus Imaging & Media.

Management buyout

In 2004, Agfa-Gevaert announced that it had reached a definitive agreement to divest the whole of its Consumer Imaging business in a management buyout

Buyout

A buyout, in finance, is an investment transaction by which the ownership equity of a company, or a majority share of the stock of the company is acquired. The acquiror thereby "buys out" control of the target company....

 for a purchase price of €175.5 million. The divestment covered the whole of its Consumer Imaging business, including film, finishing products, and lab equipment, grouped in a new company – AgfaPhoto GmbH, as well as the related lease portfolio, in a management buyout. The targeted closing date of the transaction was November 1, 2004.

The transaction resulted in a non-cash book loss to Agfa-Gevaert of €430 million, but was cash positive to the extent of €260 million. While the trading environment for both HealthCare and Graphic System divisions improved considerably, the group's half year results were heavily affected by the expected book loss on the divestiture of Consumer Imaging.

AgfaPhoto Holding GmbH

The AgfaPhoto Holding GmbH, headquartered in Leverkusen and Cologne/Germany, is dealing internationally in the consumer imaging sector. Based on a long-term trademark agreement with Agfa-Gevaert NV & Co. KG and Agfa-Gevaert NV, the company is granting sublicenses for the AgfaPhoto-trademark and the Red-Dot-Logo.

The following consumer imaging products are offered already with the AgfaPhoto trademark:
Digital Cameras & Camcorder, Analog Filmrolls & (Single Use-) Cameras, Flash Memory Cards & USB Drives, Mobile Energy Products, Digital Photo Frames, Minilabs incl. Service & Spare Parts, Optical & Magnetic Storage Media, LCD TV, DVD Players, Pocket Projectors, Binoculars, Cleaning Products, Ink Cartridges, Photo Paper

The official claim of the brand: "AgfaPhoto is the personal companion that lets consumers experience the world of images in all its exciting facets and turns the special moments in life into lasting and shareable memories."

See also

• List of Agfa films with specifications
• Agfa-Gevaert
  Agfa-Gevaert
  Agfa-Gevaert N.V. is a European multinational corporation that develops, manufactures, and distributes analogue and digital imaging products and systems, as well as IT solutions. The company has three divisions. Agfa Graphics offers integrated prepress and industrial inkjet systems to the...
  
  
• Agfa digital cameras
  Agfa digital cameras
  There was a number of digital cameras made by Agfa over the several years they were in the consumer digital camera market.*Agfa ePhoto 1280 *Agfa ePhoto 1680 *Agfa ePhoto CL50...
  
  

External links

• Official site
• Process C-22 Processing of discontinued Agfa film