GoPro To Cut 15% of Workforce In Restructuring Push

GoPro has announced a restructuring plan that involves cutting about 15% of its workforce. "The company expects to take charges in the range of $5 million to $7 million for the restructuring plan, with cash expenses of $1 million to be recognized in the third quarter and about $4 million to $6 million in the fourth quarter of 2024," reports Reuters. From the report: The layoffs - around 139 jobs - are expected to begin in the third quarter and would be completed by the end of 2024. Shares of the company, which had 925 full-time employees at the end of the second quarter ended June 30, were up 1.5% after the layoffs were announced. Earlier this month, GoPro reported revenue of $186 million for second quarter, down 22.7% compared to last year and operating expenses of $103 million, an increase of 5% from a year ago.

makes sense

[Luckyo]

Chinese pretty much caught up on action cameras regardless of patent claims. Gopro drone project failed, and DJI owns that market. There doesn't seem to be anywhere else to really expand from their expertise base.

And now that PRC has begone aggressively dumping pretty much everything mass market that they produce as they try to increase industrial output in spite of internal recession... Everyone that is competing with them is getting squeezed. Often even in their home markets.

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[misexistentialist]

They dropped the ball letting Taser take the bodycam business, government is the best customer

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[Luckyo]

Very much so. And it's not just government. Private security industry is massive as well.

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[Anonymous Coward]

GoPros also seem to have a cooling issue. Even in shade, when recording a performance of more than a few hours, they will thermal shut down. The DJI Osmos don't do this.

I hope GoPro can find their way. I don't want to see yet another US industry handed to the Chinese government on a silver platter.

Re:makes sense

[timeOday]

It doesn't help that GoPros do. not. work.

I was shopping out an action cam lately and persistently read that GoPros will overheat and shut down if you try to record continuously, especially in hot weather. To me the whole point was to start it in case something interesting happened and then forget about it. So, most people were saying to get a DJI.

It really irks me when there are rampant complaints about some product online and the company fails to resolve it - not only on the units they've already sold, but for generation after generation of new product. That says to me they're not listening and won't improve.

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[Anonymous Coward]

hot weather hahah lets not even talk about cold, killing a battery in under 10 minutes. if youve ever seen someone using gopros in the winter, ask them how many extra batteries they carry lol

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[Phact]

My ski buddies use chemical hand warmers like hothands to keep batteries warm. Some even come with a handy adhesive.

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[Seven Spirals]

As an outdoor inline skater (I also do park and rink skating in quads) I've used a lot of cameras. The GoPro has been one of the least flexible and worst cameras. The Insta360 is a much better choice for skating. It has better quality, a better editing suite, longer battery in most cases (depends on what you compare to), and much more freedom in terms of composition and effects.

Lean org

[paradigm82]

Seems like a big lay-off for a lean org... if they are only 900s.. not a lot compared to how well-known a brand it is. E.g. Spotify (the pinnacle of agile development) is almost 8000 employees. The money amounts talked about ($1 mln, $4 mln etc.) are rare to see even mentioned in the international press.

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[sunderland56]

Comparing GoPro (a hardware company) and Spotify (a web/cloud software company) is odd.

I think 900+ employees sounds high. And why do they need NINE offices???

Re: Lean org

[paradigm82]

Why odd... Is software easier to make than hardware? Besides, GoPro probably makes a lot of software too. In any case production of software should scale better than hardware (though i suppose a large part of the actual camera production is outsourced).

Workers should film their walk out the door

[JoeyRox]

They should attach one of their ridiculous cameras to their forehead and record themselves gathering their shit and being escorted off the premises. They can post it on YouTube as "fired, to the extreme!"

greedy ceo

[blackomegax]

GoPro's CEO is Nick Woodman, appointed in Feb 2004, has a tenure of 20.5 years. total yearly compensation is $5.68M, 85% of that is bonus.

CEO should give up his bonus and pay the salaries of those they'd lay off. Layoffs are the sign of a lazy, greedy CEO

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[Oddroot]

GoPro's CEO is Nick Woodman, appointed in Feb 2004, has a tenure of 20.5 years. total yearly compensation is $5.68M, 85% of that is bonus.

CEO should give up his bonus and pay the salaries of those they'd lay off. Layoffs are the sign of a lazy, greedy CEO

So. Arithmetic.

Laying off 189 people, if the CEO gave up his entire pay, salary plus bonus, he could pay those guys $30K/year each, which is not accounting for overhead of HR and benefits, which is usually 25-40% the cost of the employee, but we will take a median and say that it costs $8K per year for benefits and HR.

$22K per year is working at $11 an hour, which is close to or below minimum wage in many localities, if these employees actually have any trade skill at all they can easily find new work makin

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[kencurry]

. . . Explain again how this is a problem of the CEO's greed, exactly?

Optics.

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[BeepBoopBeep]

When the company fails to make $$, there is likely no need for roles. GoPRO was cool and all, but after sometime everyone has one, and not everyone is really upgrading to a new and flashy camera. They dont have a business model with repeating revenue, and it will only get worse for them. If you think you should get paid without anything to do, its called being on welfare.

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[blackomegax]

That isn't how innovation works. They *could* keep those employees, give them a mandate to innovate, get some new shiny on the market, and keep going. I guarantee you everyone that got laid off is a hard working talent, not some lazy welfare slob as you seem to imagine (projection, much, on your part?)

That also isn't how stable mature business works. You don't see much innovation in ritz crackers, but you don't see Nabisco laying people off. They sell a known quantity, profit, and call it a day.

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[BeepBoopBeep]

LOL, "mandate innovation"? Their business is dying, like real fast. Look at operating losses accelerate: https://www.reuters.com/market... [reuters.com]. You must think companies have a natural right to exist and Blackberry still makes smartphones people want.

New name is

[Tablizer]

...CutPro

Haven't Quite Takled that Overheating

[BrendaEM]

GoPro needs to hire a person to do thermal studies.

Overall, maybe GoPro needs to reinvent?

[ctilsie242]

I'd say GoPro needs to either reinvent themselves or they are going to be plowed under. Create a model of HERO (not the mini, another model) that is designed with a good heat-conducting metal frame, has the same waterproof rating, and look at things to improve the items that everyone screams about. Find a way to deal with thermals -- phones can deal with them (barring excessive heat), cine cameras have dealt with excessive heat for over a century. Worst case, perhaps give the option to lower framerate to at worst, 30fps, before shutting down, or maybe taking lower quality footage (it needs to be an option, of course).

From there, make a model that is up to NetFlix's standards for cameras.

As for battery, time to figure out a way to allow an internal battery, but also allow a way to connect an external battery without sacrificing water resistance. Same with connecting an external USB drive, because even phones are allowing people to plug in SSDs, since SD cards may not have enough capacity for 8k shoots.

This obviously can't be done with one camera model, as compromises have to be made. Have one for sticking on the helmet, maybe a smaller one for oddball photos, and a larger one designed as a cine camera, all of which have some unique features.

Oh, and software. GoPro is okay, but on Macs and Linux, I have to pull the MicroSD card out and rsync the files manually. GoPro needs at least USB-C, and some nice software to do stuff with it. Ideally some interface where I can plop the camera on the dock, have it automatically dump all the RAW files, verify all are there, and then optionally empty the SD card, so one can be back on track quickly. Maybe even offer cloud backups of video, although RAW video isn't exactly fast to back up over most WAN connections. Software is how GoPro can make some money and offer better integration.