GoPro Inc. For Sale Per Report

[Canon Rumors Guy]

Things haven’t been going well for GoPro for quite some time. They failed miserably at drones and <a href="https://www.dpreview.com/news/7807531513/gopro-exits-drone-market-cuts-over-250-jobs-and-drops-price-of-hero6-black-by-100">their recent Q4  2017 financials weren’t good</a>.</p>
<p>According to CNBC, GoPro Inc. hired JP Morgan Chase to broker a deal for the company. GoPro has a market capitalization of about $1bil, but any potential buyer is likely to pay far less than that. GoPro Inc stock is sitting at about $6.50 currently, after peaking at nearly $90 back in 2014.</p>
<p>GoPro Inc. CEO Nick Woodman confirmed that the company is looking for a buyer or a partnership.</p>


<p><a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/01/08/gopro-ceo-nick-woodman-says-the-company-would-entertain-a-sale.html">Nick Woodman to CNBC</a>:</p>
<blockquote><p>If there are opportunities for us to unite with a bigger parent company to scale GoPro even bigger, that is something that we would look at.</p></blockquote>
<p>I wondered a few years ago if action cams were a product you could build an entire company around since none of the big camera companies outside of Sony seemed to give them much of a thought.</p>
<p>Do we want GoPro products to continue to exist? If so, who should look to acquire or partner with the company?</p>
<span id="pty_trigger"></span>

 

[YuengLinger]

How about Google and it's subsidiary, the NSA?

 

[Canon Rumors Guy]

How about Google and it's subsidiary, the NSA?

Shots fired!

Sadly, I'm a few hundred million short.

 

[Quackator]

Sabotaging the app, trying to force users into
mandatory accounts and demanding access to
user content made them impossible to buy and
use.

They turned their products into spying tools with
guaranteed breach of privacy against their users.

Their demise is well deserved.

 

[Chris Charles]

When that marketing genius replaced the best-in-class 'GoPro' app with pathetic 'Capture' app was when I moved on. An action cam that has to be logged in to the GoPro website to use the app???
A company that places its future in the hands of someone who hasn't used their product is not deserving of any future.

 

[Don Haines]

When that marketing genius replaced the best-in-class 'GoPro' app with pathetic 'Capture' app was when I moved on. An action cam that has to be logged in to the GoPro website to use the app???
A company that places its future in the hands of someone who hasn't used their product is not deserving of any future.

Yes! An action cam, but only where there is WiFi, sucks!

And the people who re-designed the ap to get rid of most of the functionality, should be fired!

 

[ethanz]

How about Google and it's subsidiary, the NSA?

Shots fired!

Watch out CR Guy! This site is probably now on some watch list from the NSA / Google.

 

[Don Haines]

I gave up on them for two reasons:

• Constant overheating of the device after which it starts to act up till it refuses to work for a while, even when using the open frames it still does it, making the entire thing useless for anything but short duration use.
• An "app" not even with the effort to start it up.

Probably should sell the stuff gathering dust while they still exist.

Overheating? INCONCEIVABLE!

I found that I had to make a cardboard sun shade to keep it running outside on a sunny day, and if it was a hot day, even that would not work.....

BTW, Welcome to CR!

 

[Hector1970]

I have three of them, the original, three and five.
GoPro were good in their time in terms of image quality but was always going to be limited by its size to what sensor it had. It could never been a zoom really (except electronically). It had to be wide angle so very distorted. Image stability came too late (my videos from years ago done by my kids running around with it are nauseous).
The apps were poor, having to connect was a dumb move.
The buttons were always fiddly so it needed a good App.
Battery life was poor - the device is too small to get around this.
The ended up with too many similar versions that were hard to distinguish between each other.
Once they got to the version without the case they ran completely out of ideas and didn't see drones coming. They really missed the boat with the drones. Karma was an example of how not to do things.
They were doing well at the time people started adding GoPro's to drones but didn't realise the future possibilities. I admire DJI for spotting the opportunity.
GoPro I think also started making only incremental improvements rather than staying well ahead of the opposition. The could have gone to something dramatic like HD at 1000 FPS or a 1 inch sensor
I'd say they don't have much of a future, their patents/technical knowledge might be worth something but the day of the action cam is past.

 

[typer1998]

Go Pro as a company is a mess.
The 2016 Karma drone fell out of the sky. Their 2017 Karma was better, but it too was heavy and it didn't have ANY sensors! Basically it was 2-3 years behind the competition. The Session series of cameras has TERRIBLE wind noise. Nothing can fix that. It's just a terrible design. The new Heros that don't have a case around them have the same problem. Read the reviews from customers on go pro's own website and it appears as if go pro is just ignoring them.
The videos they use to market their product, well, a video you shoot will look nothing like that. Low light performance is terrible. The mounts should be quick release, but they are a screw mount. Remember before Canon and Nikon had a bayonet mount? The engineering team is putting out a terrible product. The Karma engineering team should all be fired, oh wait, I think they were. I've had 3 go pros and find they have a very limited use. Basically when it's too wet to use my iPhone or I don't want to hold my iPhone since I'm using my hands for something else. For me this basically means when I mountain or road bike. Do you see a problem? There's no reason for me to upgrade every year or two or three, but my iPhone, well that's a different story. The Yi is better and a cheaper price point. go pro is doomed...

 

[gsealy]

When it first IPOed I told people on message boards to stay away from it or else get in, take a profit, and then get out quick. Many argued with me. Some poor person bought it at $93.70! It's what happens when you invest in 'cool' instead of 'smart.'