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Concept
Polaroid Corporation
Summary
Polaroid was an American company best known for its instant film and cameras, which now survives as a brand for consumer electronics. The company was founded in 1937 by Edwin H. Land, to exploit the use of his Polaroid polarizing polymer. Land and Polaroid created the first instant camera, the Land Camera, in 1948.
Land ran the company until 1981. Its peak employment was 21,000 in 1978, and its peak revenue was $3 billion in 1991.
Polaroid Corporation was declared bankrupt in 2001; its brand and assets were sold off. A new Polaroid company formed, and the brand assets changed hands multiple times before being sold to Polish billionaire Wiaczesław Smołokowski in 2017. This acquisition allowed Impossible Project, which had started producing instant films for older Polaroid cameras in 2008, to rebrand as Polaroid Originals in 2017, and eventually as Polaroid in 2020. Since the original company's downfall, Polaroid-branded products in other fields, such as LCD televisions and DVD players, have been developed and released by various licensees globally.
The original Polaroid Corporation was founded in Cambridge, Massachusetts, by Edwin Land and George W. Wheelwright III in 1937. It has been described by The Boston Globe as a "juggernaut of innovation", and "the Apple of its time" with a "leader in Edwin Land, a scientist who guided the company as the founding CEO for four decades". Polaroid’s initial market was in polarized sunglasses — spawned from Land’s self-guided research in light polarization. Land, having completed his freshman year at Harvard University, left to pursue this market, resulting in Polaroid's birth. Land later returned to Harvard to continue his research. Polaroid, owning patents to its polarizer technology, got its start by employing polarization in products that included 3-D movies and protective goggles for military dogs. During World War II, Polaroid designed and manufactured numerous products for the armed services including an infrared night viewing device. He led the company as CEO for 43 years.
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