Sports Business/01/09/2018

Camera manufacturer GoPro ends experiment with drone Karma and seeks investor

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Poor business figures and the end of the drone experiment: action camera manufacturer GoPro is discontinuing production of its Karma drone and plans to cut around 250 jobs. CEO Nick Woodman also confirmed to American media that GoPro is looking for an investor.

Action camera maker GoPro confirmed it's ending Karma production.
Time for a recall! Technical problems with GoPro’s new drone Karma mean it could drop from the sky without warning.

There is news from GoPro that might irritate fans and investors: After further setbacks in business performance, CEO Nick Woodman has announced several countermeasures.

  • The U.S.-based action camera maker is ending the experiment with its Karma drone, which has struggled with poor battery performance, technical issues and strong competition from China.
  • GoPro is cutting more than 250 jobs, or one-fifth of its entire workforce.
  • An investor is expected to help halt the decline of the once-successful company. "If the opportunity arises to partner with a larger umbrella company to make GoPro even bigger, that's definitely interesting to us," GoPro CEO Nick Woodman told CNBC.

GoPro founder Nick Woodman is combative

For the fourth quarter of 2017, GoPro expects only $340 million in revenue - previous projections had been for around $470 million.

News of the preliminary quarterly figures sent GoPro's stock price tumbling on Monday. The stock plunged more than 30 percent at times to around $5.

The GoPro founder and CEO was combative. He wants to turn things around, Nick Woodman wrote: "We expect GoPro to return to profitability and growth in the second half of 2018 through our roadmap and a lower operating cost model."

GoPro “is committed to turning our business around“

For the fourth quarter of 2017, GoPro is expecting sales of only 340 million US dollars - previous forecasts had assumed sales of around 470 million dollars.

The news of the preliminary quarterly figures caused the GoPro share price to collapse on Monday. At times, the share fell by more than 30 percent to around USD 5.

The GoPro founder and chairman of the board Nick Woodman wrote: “We expect that going forward, our roadmap coupled with a lower operating expense model will enable GoPro to return to profitability and growth in the second half of 2018.“

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