GoPro Stock Slammed After Earnings Outlook Cut, Layoffs Announced

Action camera manufacturer GoPro Inc. said Wednesday its fourth-quarter results would miss investors’ expectations. It also announced layoffs that amount to 7 percent of its workforce.

“GoPro expects revenue to be approximately $435 million for the fourth quarter of 2015 and $1.6 billion for the calendar year,” the California-based company said in a statement Wednesday. “Fourth quarter revenue reflects lower than anticipated sales of its capture devices due to slower than expected sell through at retailers, particularly in the first half of the quarter.”

Analysts had expected fourth-quarter revenue of $512 million, according to Thomson Reuters.

The company’s share price plummeted by more than 25 percent in after-hours trading.

According to CNBC, GoPro CEO Nick Woodman told staff in a memo that the job cuts were “necessary” after a recent wave of expansion. The company says its staff has grown by more than 50 percent annually over the last two years, reaching more than 1,500 at the end of 2015.

“This was a difficult and deeply emotional decision. But it was a necessary one,” Woodman told staffers in the memo.

The company also announced that Zander Lurie had resigned from his role as senior vice president of GoPro Entertainment and was appointed to the company’s board of directors.

GoPro said it expects to incur between $5 million and $10 million in restructuring expenses during the first quarter of 2016. Nearly all of that, it said, will be severance costs.