GoPro is undergoing a company wide restructuring after experiencing a lackluster 2017. The company fell short of its earnings target, despite revenue in the fourth quarter actually improving over the same time period in 2016. As such, it has announced that the GoPro Karma will be its last drone.
A number of changes are taking place at GoPro, with the company aiming to reduce its annual operating expenses by $80 million (RM320 million). Firstly, the workforce is being cut; with GoPro saying that it aims to drop headcount from 1254 employees to somewhere below 1000.
It will also no longer be developing or manufacturing drones. The Karma drone failed to impress over the competition from DJI, not to mention that a number of the products were recalled after losing power during flight. Curiously, GoPro is also blaming drone regulations being put in place by the US and UK for reducing the future potential of the market.
“Although Karma reached the #2 market position in its price band in 2017, the product faces margin challenges in an extremely competitive aerial market. Furthermore, a hostile regulatory environment in Europe and the United States will likely reduce the total addressable market in the years ahead. These factors make the aerial market untenable and GoPro will exit the market after selling its remaining Karma inventory. GoPro will continue to provide service and support to Karma customers.” Reads the press announcement.
Finally, GoPro is reducing the salary of CEO and founder Nicholas Woodman to a mere $1 (RM4). That said, Woodman still retains any other form of remuneration that he had before.
GoPro isn’t exactly struggling for revenue. It’s still doing reasonably well with its line of action cameras. The GoPro Hero 5 saw relatively slow sales shortly after launch, but picked up once it saw a price drop.
[Source: GoPro]
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