Kodak online photos will move to Shutterfly

NEW YORK – Kodak will close its online photo service on July 2 after a federal bankruptcy judge approved the sale of the business to Shutterfly for $23.8 million.

Shutterfly Inc. emerged last month as the sole bidder for Eastman Kodak Co.’s Kodak Gallery. The judge issued an order approving the sale last week.

Kodak, which filed for bankruptcy protection in January, is selling the photo printing, storage and sharing business to generate cash and to narrow its focus.

The two companies offer similar services, where basic sharing of photos is free and users pay for prints, photo books, digital copies on DVDs and other products. The services still make money, but demand has declined in recent years as people increasingly share photos online through Facebook and other social networks.

Kodak warned that because the migration “will be a massive undertaking, involving the movement of billions of photos,” customers’ images may not appear on Shutterfly for months. Photos will appear under a “Kodak” folder in Shutterfly.

Kodak said customers must complete orders for prints and other products by July 2, or order from Shutterfly after that. Kodak allows full-resolution downloads of photos for free, but Shutterfly does not. That means users wanting the originals for free must retrieve them before July 2. Users can also buy DVDs with the full-resolution files through either service.