GoPro Shares At an All-Time Low After Disaster Sales; Will Let Go 7% of Its Staff
Jan 14, 2016
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In its announcement to investors of Q4 and overall preliminary results for 2015, GoPro said it will be cutting back its workforce by 7% in order to “better align resources to key growth initiatives”, but Business Insider says the move came as “sales are a disaster”. Meanwhile the company’s shares hit an all-time low.
That might be hard to believe considering the company’s annual revenue grew by 16% to $1.6 billion in 2015, but the market was disappointed by the lower-than-expected sales.
“Over the past two years, GoPro’s headcount has grown by more than 50% annually, to more than 1,500 employees at the end of 2015,” the statement says, and shortly thereafter it announced the reduction in its workforce.
Most companies would be thrilled having an expected revenue of $435 million for the last three months of 2015, but this is significantly lower than the expected $511 million.
The company added that “lower than anticipated sales of its capture devices due to slower than expected sell through at retailers”, and that this figure includes a $21 million charge related to the price reduction of the HERO4 Session.
Business Insider reports that GoPro shares had been halted for news pending after the closing bell, but things didn’t improve after trading continued – as the shares collapsed by 24%.
With the upcoming release of the Nikon’s KeyMission 360 and several other 360° degree cameras, as well as many cheaper POV camera alternatives (did anybody say Yi action cam?) many are left wondering if GoPro’s glory days are behind it.
[via Business Insider | Lead image based on a photo by Ken Teegardin]
Liron Samuels
Liron Samuels is a wildlife and commercial photographer based in Israel. When he isn’t waking up at 4am to take photos of nature, he stays awake until 4am taking photos of the night skies or time lapses. You can see more of his work on his website or follow him on Facebook.
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20 responses to “GoPro Shares At an All-Time Low After Disaster Sales; Will Let Go 7% of Its Staff”
360 cams and 3D photography is the futurez
Lots of cheap Chinese knockoffs.
That what happens when everyone thinks wall street is the golden goose. The fans lost interest when you went main street.
Nothing new but bland, low end offerings last fall so of course their sales were down. I don’t see how they could have expected better.
When companies go public, they lose focus on long term goals in favour of quarter to quarter results. Some companies are just better off staying private
Going public is all about letting the early private investors cash out before a company starts to go downhill. IPOs are risky business.
If anyone in this post says Nikon I’m going to cut them
NIkon ! , come and get me !
Adam Frimer its not nikon its made in ‘prc’
It’s a matter of time they will let go more then 7%
its because they cost far to much, that was fine when it was launched because there was no one else really doing what the Gopro did but now theres much more competition and most of the competition now offer much better features on their cameras for much less cost. Gopro did not keep up or take the time to look around to see what the competition was doing.
beside costing far too much (especially their accessories) they don’t really offer anything to justify the price difference to casual users.
What’s this article got to do with anything DIY?. Just curious.
I called this when they first announced their IPO. Everyone who wants one has one at this point, and people are starting to realize that they’re not actually so hardcore as the Redbull athletes and their footage is more embarrassing than exciting.
not surprising really. everything after the 3 has been mediocre at best.
The stock market is just an asshole. ACME “We make amazing profit.” – Stock market “F*ck that. We expected even more. So screw you. Fire some people.” :/
It’s a simple matter of market saturation. The product has run its course. GoPro is a remarkable short-run success story, but once you have a Hero and they are no longer faddish, you’re just not going to buy another one.
Unlike companies who LEAD in tech industries, GoPro settled for “good enough.” 360º photography IS the future. The best GoPro did was to snap up some software tech, but they have no definitive 360º, 4K camera. Kodak saw this coming and has a very nice 180º spherical that shoots 4K, but it is still only 180º in one take. Ricoh’s Theta S is firmly on the path but is fragile and still only shooting 1080 video in the round.
Which ever product can produce the first 4K 360º video fully immersive video camera, that also happens to be completely waterproof and scratch-resistant as well, will score a major market snafu! This problem is going to plague any camera vendor whose lenses stick out away from the case (as they must), so a truly cool-looking, functional and easily protected for safe-keeping and track solution must be part of any success story. the fact that 360º cameras—especially as a one-shot format—have lens safeguard issues, has already proven a huge issue for Ricoh’s ‘Theta’ camera, I’ve already broken one of them, and they have NO REPAIRS! None! B&H even tripled the cost of their ‘Drops & Spills insurance.’
I’ve been on the curling edge of digital imaging since 1984 (that’s right youngness 1984!) and I can tell you that Immersive 360º IS THE ONLY WAY photography can go. When someone finally finds a way to easily, naturally project 360º anyone Not filming SUPER high res 360 will be out to pasture. And by SUPER Hi-Res I mean far over 4K, because 4K-quality imagery, stretched over a 360º, is a lot more than 4K!
:::tick:::tick:::tick
That last line should have read: “…4K-quality imagery, stretched over a 360º, [REQUIRES] a lot more than 4K resolution to look like GOOD 1080HD footage.
Just bought a Mokacam. 2-4x Less the price for 1080p 60p action cam that still uses exsisting GoPro mounts for $110. Better battery, better lens, better censor. $110. It does 4k at 15fps (which I probably won’t use), but even still. I don’t need a 4k Hero Black or a Silver. It’s to much of an expense for something casual.
They are their own worst enemy. They need to lower their prices and stop acting like they are the only ones on the Market. It’s Saturated. Adapt or Die.