Eastman Kodak Co.'s (EKDKQ) patent auction in New York has failed to generate the premium bids that the company and creditors had hoped for, with some suitors leaving the action in the past few days, people familiar with the matter said.

All the bids received for Kodak's portfolio of 1,100 digital patents thus far were significantly below $500 million, as consortiums that include Apple Inc. (AAPL) and Google Inc. (GOOG) declined to engage in the sort of spirited bidding that drove up prices in an auction of Nortel Networks (NRTLQ) patents a year ago, the people said.

The sale continues through the weekend with Kodak and bidders communicating by phone and the result hard to predict, the people said. But the low initial bids and apparent absence of a bidding war suggest Kodak will likely face difficulty collecting enough to repay creditors fully and emerge from Chapter 11 as it had originally planned.