Prior to Hero 4 Session, GoPro launched Hero 4 Black and Hero 5 Silver cameras in the fall of 2014, which delivered impressive sales and boosted the company’s finances and confidence.
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The company already had lowered the ice-cube sized camera’s price in September. Initially shares dropped by upwards of 25 percent but have slightly recovered and are now trading at $12.27, down around 16 percent with slight fluctuations in both directions. Fourth quarter revenue includes a $21 million reduction for price protection related charges resulting from the HERO4 Session repricing in December.
GoPro said in a statement that it expects revenue to be approximately $435 million for Q4 2015 and $1.6 billion for the calendar year (some analysts were expecting as much as $511 million in revenue during the quarter).
The camera maker has announced it laid off 7 per cent of its workforce, and it issued a notice to investors, alerting them of poor action camera sales as well as disappointing holiday sales. It also is facing new competition from traditional camera makers like Sony Corp. and new entrants such as Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi Corp. Expectations were for revenue in the range of $500M-$550M but the company now says it expects to report just $435M.
GoPro is to release its official earnings figures for previous year on February 3.
“Over the past two years, GoPro’s headcount has grown by more than 50 percent annually, to more than 1,500 employees at the end of 2015”, the company said.
GoPro also announced on Thursday the appointment of former senior vice president of GoPro Entertainment Zander Lurie to serve on the company’s board of directors. Lurie is joining an online survey startup SurveyMonkey as CEO. As a result, it will incur restructuring costs of up to $10 million in the form of severance packages.
Shares of Ambarella were off 11% at $39.75 in after-hours trading.
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Ambarella has posted lower-than-expected revenue in recent quarters as it faces weakness in the wearable-sports market.
