Kodak's announcement today is evidence that sentimentality is dead in 21st century business.

The film world has, after all, been moping since Polaroid stopped producing its iconic instant camera film in early 2008 (take heart, Polaroid fans, "The Impossible Project" is working to reinvent instant film in an old Polaroid factory in the Netherlands). But today Eastman Kodak (NYSE: EK) said it was halting production of the complex-yet-storied Kodachrome film, immediately. Not only does the product make up less than 1% of its worldwide still-picture film sales; it's extraordinarily expensive to produce.

Ryder System (NYSE: R) today announced it is dropping its forecast for third-quarter earnings per share from $1.20-$1.23 to $1.12-$1.14. The company also revealed that third-quarter results will be impacted by a $10 million sale of property, more than offset by a $12 million charge for restructuring, the benefits of which won't be realized until 2008. Its end-of-year projections are now for EPS of $4.10-$4.15, down from previous expectations of $4.30-$4.35, but still above 2006 figures.

Ryder blames general softening of demand beyond the housing sector for declining revenue in its Fleet Management Solutions segment, which accounts for about 60% of its revenue. The company has a fleet of more than 140,000 vehicles and employs almost 30,000 people.

One area to keep an eye on with Ryder is its Supply Chain Solutions sector, which accounts for 32% of revenue. This sector is closely tied to the automobile industry -- in fact, GM (NYSE: GM) accounted for 40% of Ryder's SCS revenue in 2006. Slack times at GM could show up on Ryder's bottom line.

FedEx Corp. (NYSE: FDX)'s dream of entering India's domestic logistics business has failed with the withdrawal of its bid for SafeExpress, one of the largest Indian logistics companies. Had the deal been approved, it would have given FedEx quite a large chunk of the express cargo, third party logistics and warehousing segment.

Instead, FedEx wasn't willing to pay the high price that SafeExpress demanded, sources close to the deal told The Economic Times. SafeExpress founder and managing director Pawan Jain valued his company at Rs2000 crore, nearly $500 million. FedEx was willing to spend up to Rs1800 crore, or $445 million, for the Indian logistics company.

The move hurts FedEx's chances of successfully entering India's domestic logistics segment through a strategic acquisition. Competitors DHL and TNT (OTC: TNTTY) have already been successful in finding a logistics company in India, with DHL acquiring 81% of Blue Dart for Rs 730 crore, or $181 million, in 2004 and TNT's acquisition of Speedage, a division of ARC India last year, for Rs200 crore, or $50 million.

The lack of an acquisition also hurt SafeExpress, after a multitude of regional managers and operational leaders from various divisions have left the company in the past eight months, unsure of the company's future. On the topic of acquisitions, this weekend Barron's said that FedEx themselves could be a private-equity target.

It's been a month since YRC Worldwide's (NASDAQ: YRCW) annual shareholder meeting, when CEO Bill Zollars said that he would look to the East for future expansion. Look no further:

Yesterday, YRC announced that it has entered a preliminary deal to acquire Shanghai Jiayu Logistics Limited, one of the largest providers of less-than-truckload ground transportation services in China.

The push into China more than doubles the size of YRC Worldwide in that country, from 1,400 employees to more than 3,000. While details of the transaction were not provided, Zollers said earlier this year that acquisitions in China would cost up to $100 million. With more than 30,000 customers, 1,600 employees, 300 tractors and a network of over 3,000 vehicles in Shanghai's possession, YRC Worldwide found a steal.

When comparing the assets to MeridianIQ, the Company's logistics segment -- now called YRC Logistics -- it's monumental. YRC Logistics has 18,000 transactional and 350 contractual customers around the globe and accounted for 6% of YRC Worldwide's total operating revenue in 2006 ($162.5B). Today's acquisition more than doubles the assets and overall customers of the Logistics segment alone, with the bulk now in China. Zollers said he expects to see significant revenues from China to hit the bottom line in 2008.

The transportation giant already has a jointly-owned air freight importer and a jointly-owned logistics' company in the region, but the acquisitions are far from over. Zollars told analysts back in March to expect two acquisitions this year, a ground hauler and a logistics company.

One down, one to go.

Kevin Shult is a writer for TheFlyOnTheWall.com (subscription required)

Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd. (NYSE: CP) maintenance workers have walked off the job in pursuit of a 13% wage increase over the next three years. This is the second strike this year against one of Canada's national railways and it affects approximately 3,000 rail workers. The previous strike in February involved engineers and yard workers. That dispute is currently in the hands of mediators.

Teamsters union leader William Brehl, indicated that for most of the workers involved in the current walkout, wages are the central issue. Union members are demanding a three year, 13% total wage increase, but the company has refused to agree to an increase of more than 10%. The deadlock indicates little promise for early resolution. The company has stated that the vacated work positions shall be immediately staffed with cross trained management personnel and it anticipates little effect to business operations.

At least one Canadian economist has indicated that this knot in Canadian logistics has the potential to push some would be Canadian rail traffic southward into the U.S. Jayson Myers, chief economist with the Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters, told CBC News, "We can't afford to see continuing series of strikes in our transportation sector, and then pretend that we have an efficiently working logistics system here in Canada."

Perhaps Warren Buffett is on to something.

Cardinal Health Inc. (NYSE: CAH) is the nation's number one supplier of support products and services for the health care industry. After a lengthy investigation by the New York Attorney General's office regarding the purchase of pharmaceutical products on the secondary pharmaceutical market, Cardinal Health announced December 26, 2006, that a settlement had been reached and that the situation is, for Cardinal, no longer an issue, except as pertains to their ongoing efforts to improve the security of the pharmaceutical products supply chain.

It should be noted that the $81 billion health provider Cardinal was only one participant in an investigation that involves health care players nation wide. Cardinal's stock value has deflated some over the past nine months, and may constitute a nice buy right about now.

The good news is that Cardinal has completed a comprehensive test of RFID technology, one of my pet projects. Cardinal has proven that RFID (radio frequency identification) tags can be applied to product, encoded en route, and then accurately read at normal production speeds during packaging and distribution of pharmaceuticals. The test has shown that RFID can be exploited within existing product flow models utilizing current equipment and materials. Cardinal reports encoding yields of 95% to 97%, and they expect they can fine tune for even higher yields. Yield simply means complete and accurate encoding in one production pass through.