Imation Brings Dead Brands Back to Life - BusinessWeek

Imation Brings Dead Brands Back to Life - BusinessWeek: "Imation Brings Dead Brands Back to Life"

You might think a brand is dead when stores stop selling it. Jeff Meredith knows better. The vice-president for global marketing and product development at Imation (IMN), the world's largest seller of recordable compact discs, has spent the last couple of years reincarnating Memorex as a line of consumer electronics. Now he's bringing back another relic from the predigital age, TDK, as a high-end line of stereo gear. After that, Meredith wants to rejuvenate at least one other brand: Imation itself. (Remember Imation floppy disks? Remember floppy disks?)

Meredith's work may be make or break for his employer. The 1996 spinoff from 3M (MMM) has lost money for three years running. Last year's revenue of $1.65 billion was down 20% from the company's peak in 2007 as consumers skip past data-storage media like compact discs and put their data on flash memory, where Imation is only a minor player, or on the Net instead. Charles Murphy, an analyst with Sidoti & Co., says Imation has two years to turn itself around before it could be forced to start burning through its $163 million cash cushion. "It's paramount that they find some way to grow," he says.