More tough news for GoPro as it pre-announced its first-quarter earnings earlier today. While the company announced that revenue for the first part of 2017 will hit toward the high end of guidance, the positivity was tempered by its plans to cut 270 more jobs.
That number that comes in addition to the 100 it announced in January 2016 and 200 back in November, amounting to seven- and 15-percent of the company’s workforce, respectively.
The job loss comes as GoPro looks to right the ship following a tough 2016 that found its stock price plummeting, in the wake of weak 2015 holiday sales and a recall of the company’s long-awaited folding Karma drone, which was pulled off the market after “a very small number” lost power while in use. The analogies are tough to avoid.
As ever, the GoPro’s founder and CEO Nick Woodman put a happy face on the company’s prospects moving forward, as he addressed the difficult news.
“We’re determined that GoPro’s financial performance match the strength of our products and brand,” he said in a statement issued alongside the financial news. “Importantly, expense reductions preserve our product roadmap and we are tracking to full-year non-GAAP profitability in 2017.”
The statement reflects similar comments made by the executive back in January at CES, and there is some manner of silver lining for the company, as stocks rallied a bit in after hours trading.
Forbes cites a source claiming that the cuts have largely targeted the company’s virtual reality and broadcasting wings, claiming that “no one is left” to supervise the departments. Those cuts would certainly reflect Woodman’s CES assertions that GoPro is looking to shift its focus on a core set of products. But even that could prove tricky for a company synonymous with a space that has been flooded with likeminded devices, many managing to undercut its pricing. Not to mention competition in the drone space from one-time partner, DJI.
We reached out to GoPro for further comment, but the company has opted to let its statement speak for itself.