Bad news for GoPro users: its preliminary fourth quarter 2017 results have just been released, and appears to suggest the company is struggling. The company will be cutting staff numbers and exiting the drone market.
There has been a half on pre-market trading of GoPro shares after the release of the results. There are plans for the company to drop its staff numbers from 1,254 down to “fewer than 1,000.” Meanwhile, they have announced they’ll exit the drone market, as well as reducing CEO 2018 compensation to $1.
In an official statement, GoPro founder and CEO Nicholas Woodman is quoted as saying:
As we noted in our November earnings call, at the start of the holiday quarter we saw soft demand for our HERO5 Black camera. Despite significant marketing support, we found consumers were reluctant to purchase HERO5 Black at the same price it launched at one year earlier. Our December 10 holiday price reduction provided a sharp increase in sell-through.
TechCrunch had already reported last week that a number of employees had been laid off, and that most of the layoffs came from the engineering department of the Karma drone.
Their fourth-quarter revenue is expected to hit $340 million which, while still impressive, is approximately a 37 percent decline from the same quarter in 2016.
GoPro has reassured owners of its Karma drone they will continue to receive service and support, regardless.
More is expected in the end of year report, due February.
Lead image by Gabriela Palai via Pexels.
[via TechCrunch]
So does that mean a non-drone owner like me might be able to get one on the cheap in the future?
Why would you want that flying turd? Just get a DJI.
Pretty sure everyone knew this was going to happen when the Mavic Pro launched. Plus that odd 360 cam. They should have just stuck to the cameras.