Apple and Google have teamed up in an attempt to buy more than 1,100 patents in the Kodak portfolio, which has been up for sale since June, they had both previously tabled individual bids below the $500m marker.

Kodak is keen to sell as it is aiming to secure the US$830m financing offer which it hopes will return the company back to profit, but this is contingent on the sale of the digital-imaging patents for at least US$500m.

Kodak is selling the patents to fund a turnaround after seeking Chapter 11 protection in January. At the same time, it’s pursuing a plan to downsize the company and focus less on photography and more on commercial, packaging and functional printing and enterprise services.

Kodak has said in court documents, the patents may be worth US$2.21bn to $2.57bn, based on an estimate by patent advisory firm 284 Partners. Kodak says it has generated more than $3bn in revenue by licensing some of the digital- imaging patents to users.

Antonio Perez, chairman and CEO said last month, “Since our Chapter 11 filing in January, we have focused on the businesses that are core to our future strategic direction and exited businesses that were unprofitable. The actions we are taking in response to economic and market conditions are working and will position us to emerge in 2013 as a growing, profitable, sustainable company.”

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