[The Verge] GoPro just went public with a $100 million IPO

[TopWargamer]

Source: http://www.theverge.com/2014/5/19/5719024/gopro-goes-public-big-hopes-on-small-cameras

 

In a filing today, the company said it plans to raise $100 million from its initial public offering, and will list on the NASDAQ exchange under the ticker symbol GPRO. That number sets a baseline, and may increase substantially depending on investor interest GoPro encounters during its roadshow leading up to the IPO.

 

Along with the IPO figure, the company disclosed its financials, saying that it earned close to $60.6 million in profit off revenues close to $1 billion last year. Some of those figures were known, short of what the company made last year in the lead up to its plans to go public.

 

GoPro also detailed a dual class plan for its common stock, giving voting control to Woodman and other executives. That means the group that founded and directed the company early on will hold the reins as it evolves, something that's been a key factor in the long term growth and evolution at companies like Google and Facebook.

 

It was bound to happen sooner or later. GoPro is pretty popular already, and going public will just make them even more popular, grow their brand, and bring in more revenue, albeit, at the cost of others owning stock/owning part of the company. It's aaaaalmost a good enough trade off for them, but I don't know much about GoPro or stocks and whatnot to know what's best for them.

 

Thoughts on GoPro going public?

[AMD Lover]

Eh, all company's that grow to a point do it.

[EChondo]

Just wish I could afford one for myself....would make for a great dashcam!

[kuddlesworth9419]

I like it when companies stay private. I find they do better in the long run as their original vision isn't ruined. It's why Valve has stayed private. If Valve was public it would be terrible, you would have businessman trying to make as much money out of us as possible, more so then what Valve already can, with adverts for washing machines in the Steam client and crap like that. 

[DLM_012]

Lately I've noticed a trend with companies when they go public. It seems like they do so once their innovation has stopped and they've stagnated. It happened with Facebook and now it's happening with GoPro. As I previously mentioned, this is a trend that I've noticed lately and it shouldn't necessarily be "a rule of thumb"

[Warcony]

I like it when companies stay private. I find they do better in the long run as their original vision isn't ruined. It's why Valve has stayed private. If Valve was public it would be terrible, you would have businessman trying to make as much money out of us as possible, more so then what Valve already can, with adverts for washing machines in the Steam client and crap like that. 

 

I totally agree with you.  Companies that go public only care about their bottom line and their image.  Look at Dell and Blackberry, doing better as a private company than as a public.

[kuddlesworth9419]

I totally agree with you.  Companies that go public only care about their bottom line and their image.  Look at Dell and Blackberry, doing better as a private company than as a public.

Well it's not really the company itself it's the people who own the stock. People buy stock not because they are interested in the companies business but rather if the company will be able to grow in the future and make more money so they can sell their stock afterwards. Generally stockholders buy their stock and then a few months down the road sell it off sometimes it's after hours or even minutes just to make a bit more money. The problem is that the stockholders that plan on selling their stock after a few months as they a crap load and therefore have more say in what the company does. They don't care what happens after they sell their stock so they try and force the company to do shitty things like what most public companies do eg. screw over the consumer (that is vague but there are too many ways companies do this). 

 

The only problem is that when GabeN steps down as the head of Valve he would have to give entire control over to someone who has the same vision as him. It would be interesting to see if gabeN made a contract preventing the sale and the making of valve go public. That way the company would stay true to it's creators vision hopefully.

 

Alternatively GabeN could upload his conscious to a Glados like Super computer and control Valve that way. I would prefer that.