Google, Apple Eye Kodak Patents, Have Placed Bids On Them: Report

Latest Front In The Patent Wars: Kodak
In this Jan. 5, 2012 photo, a Kodak Easyshare digital camera is displayed at B&H Photo & Video, in New York. Eastman Kodak Co. said Thursday, Feb. 9, 2012, it will stop making digital cameras, pocket video cameras and digital picture frames in order to focus on its more profitable businesses. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)
In this Jan. 5, 2012 photo, a Kodak Easyshare digital camera is displayed at B&H Photo & Video, in New York. Eastman Kodak Co. said Thursday, Feb. 9, 2012, it will stop making digital cameras, pocket video cameras and digital picture frames in order to focus on its more profitable businesses. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)

(Reuters) - Eastman Kodak, which is planning to auction 1,100 digital patents, received two bids from investor groups including Apple Inc and Google Inc of between $150 million and $250 million, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday.

Bankrupt Kodak is selling the patents, which it believes could be worth $2.6 billion, in order to repay creditors. The company filed for Chapter 11 protection in January after failing to keep up as consumers and rivals shifted to digital photography from film photography.

A spokesman for Kodak could not immediately be reached on Monday.

Bids can rise quickly in bankruptcy auctions. Nortel Networks Inc in 2011 sold its patent portfolio for $4.5 billion after initial bids came in at just $900 million.

Kodak's auction is slated to begin on Wednesday morning.

(Reporting By Nick Brown; Editing by Richard Pullin)

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