Kodak, which filed for bankruptcy in January, into a US$950 million financing facility secured by its assets, including some of its digital imaging patents, which it is required to put up for sale this month.

Its attempt to use a "stalking horse" strategy for the customer accounts and images of did not pay off, as online photo service Shutterfly's $23.8 million bid, the stalking horse bid in this case, emerged as the only bidder. A stalking horse bid sets the minimum price for other bids for a business in an auction.

Kodak now plans to auction off its patents in a process where there will be no disclosure of unsuccessful bidders to other bidders and the public, it said in a statement on Monday. Only the winning bidder and the amount of the successful bid will be announced publicly at the end of the auction, Kodak said. About 20 parties have already signed confidentiality agreements and have been provided access to an electronic data room.

Interest in competitive bidding for the company's digital imaging patent assets has been "chilled" by potential purchasers' reluctance to act as a stalking horse bidder in a conventional, public auction, Kodak said in a filing to the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York. Instead a sales process tailored to sufficiently address possible buyer concern regarding confidentiality and certainty of closing, that a traditional auction process lacks, is necessary to obtain the highest and best price for the company's digital imaging patents, it said.

Kodak is selling two separate portfolios, called the Digital Capture and Kodak Imaging Systems and Services (KISS) portfolios, as they have different characteristics and may interest different buyers, it said.