Minnesota's Pohlad family acquires Polaroid majority

Associated Press

MINNEAPOLIS - Minnesota's Pohlad family has acquired majority ownership of Polaroid in a $70 million deal.

Minnetonka-based Polaroid is best known for making instant cameras but the name can be found on a variety of electronic goods, including tablets, cameras and flat-screen TVs. The company filed for bankruptcy protection in 2008 and most of its assets were sold to private investors the following year but the bankruptcy estate still had a partial ownership stake in the company.

Last week, a federal bankruptcy judge approved selling that ownership stake to the Pohlads and an undisclosed partner, the Star Tribune reported (http://strib.mn/1viQ9RW ). The Pohlad-owned Marquette Companies also acquired ownership from previous investors in Polaroid to gain control of about 65 percent of the company.

The transaction was completed Monday, the newspaper reported.

"We are doing this for three reasons," Jann Ozzello Wilcox, the chief investment officer for Marquette Companies, said in a statement to the Star Tribune. "First, we continue to seek good, strategic growth opportunities; second, we see Polaroid as an iconic brand with a licensing model that's working, and third, it's a local company with a solid management team."

Polaroid CEO Scott Hardy said in a statement the deal will bring stable family capital to the Polaroid brand over the long term.

"This sale will be the next step in the ongoing resurgence of our iconic American brand and we are very excited about what it means for Polaroid in 2015 and beyond," Hardy said.

Polaroid was founded in 1937 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, by inventor Edwin Land. The company shook up the photography world in 1948 with the first instant camera.

The Pohlads are one of the wealthiest families in Minnesota and have owned the Minnesota Twins baseball team since 1984.