Business

GoPro’s Rally In Context

Morning Report: GoPro shares are much higher today. But before you get excited, it’s worth recalling how we got here.

Shares in GoPro, a sports camera company, are up 14 percent this morning after the company revised its revenue forecast for the first quarter towards the upper end of prior guidance, announced layoffs, and projected cost savings of “more than $200 million year over year.”

The company claims that it aims for “non-GAAP profitability [in] 2017.” As a reminder, non-GAAP is like profit in that it includes the word profit. But it is unlike profit in that it isn’t “profit,” per se.

The news and ensuing share price jump are welcome news for shareholders. GoPro has lost most of its value to date, trading over $85 per share in 2014 and under $8.50 today. And that’s including its roughly $1 per share gain off the cost-cutting news.

In another words, GoPro is managing impressive gains from a value base so reduced that the percentage increase in its value isn’t the best way to measure performance. GoPro went public at $24 per share.

We don’t need to be only negative, of course. GoPro’s preceding round of layoffs in November of 2016 saw it give up on its dreams of becoming a media company. I quoted Bloomberg at the time, which had the correct take:

“The closing of [its] entertainment division is a signal that the company is finally narrowing its vision. Wall Street has long been skeptical about GoPro’s plans to build a media company around its action-packed GoPro videos online.”

In keeping with that, the company said this week that it is “on track for new hardware, software, and international growth in 2017.” Missing from that mix is, of course, entertainment incomes. So the “narrowing” that Bloomberg discussed remains in place, and GoPro is working to change its cost profile to help it return to adjusted profit. In its most recently reported quarter, the fourth of 2016, GoPro’s net income of negative $115.71 million was staggering compared to its revenue of $540.62 million. (GoPro’s revenue is seasonal, spiking during the fourth quarter.)

Still, reading this chart of how the company will calculate costs to determine non-GAAP profitability isn’t completely encouraging:

$70 million in yearly stock-based compensation when your market cap is three commas that start with a one.

All this sums easily for startups looking to sell hardware: GoPro, along with some other market duds like Fitbit, have made it much harder to convince to investors that there is unicorn dust at the end of your Series D.

Today in the Crunchbase Daily:

Livongo raises $53M for digital health

  • Livongo, a Silicon Valley-based provider of digital health tools for managing diabetes and other chronic conditions, announced that it has raised $52.5 million in a growth round led by General Catalyst and international investment company Kinnevik.

Walmart’s Jet.com to buy ModCloth

  • ModCloth, an online women’s clothing retailer known for quirky, vintage-inspired clothes, is being acquired by Walmart-owned e-commerce provider Jet.com, news site Jezebel.com reported. The purchase price wasn’t disclosed for ModCloth, a 15-year-old company that previously raised about $80 million in venture funding.

Biomatics Capital raises $200M VC fund

  • Biomatics Capital Partners, a Seattle-based venture capital firm focused on healthcare technology, announced the closing of an initial fund of $200 million. The firm plans to invest in 15 to 20 companies with the fund, acting as Series A lead investor in a majority of the deals.

Startups still vie for messaging riches

  • Messaging startups are still raising funding, with over $300 million going into the space in the past year, according to a Crunchbase analysis. Yet round sizes indicate investors aren’t expecting the next Snap among the current startup crop. Still, a few investment themes appear in vogue, including apps with added layers of confidentiality and revenue-driving add-ons.

Stay up to date with recent funding rounds, acquisitions, and more with the Crunchbase Daily.

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