Eastman Kodak once described the sale of 1,100 digital imaging patents as a windfall that could prop up and even save the beleaguered company.

On Wednesday, the sale was finally announced, but instead of bringing as much as $2.6 billion as Kodak once predicted, the selling price was far short of that amount, at about $525 million. The buyer was a consortium that includes many of the world’s biggest technology firms, among them Apple, Google, Facebook and Samsung Electronics.

Kodak officials said the sale was another step toward emerging from bankruptcy, and turning around a decades-long slide for the Rochester-based corporation.

“This monetization of patents is another major milestone toward successful emergence,” Antonio M. Perez, Kodak’s chief executive, said in a news release. “Our progress has accelerated over the past several weeks as we prepare to emerge as a strong, sustainable company.”