GoPro says it’s still committed ‘to your collective stoke’

CEO Nick Woodman addressed concerns GoPro might pull back from consumer camera tech after its Starman merger.

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GoPro CEO Nick Woodman said in a letter to customers that making cameras is still his company’s “core DNA,” after a proposed $285 million acquisition by Starman was announced earlier this week. He claims the merger puts GoPro in a better position to continue developing its content creation tech, after saying in the deal announcement that it would work with Starman to address “important areas of national security related to cameras, optics and AI infrastructure.”

YouTuber Mark “Markiplier” Fischbach, who prior to the acquisition became GoPro’s largest individual shareholder, is not mentioned at all.

To our GoPro community, fans and customers, We understand there’s some concern about GoPro’s post-merger commitment to continue developing market leading cameras for consumers and professionals. Making amazing cameras for all of you is our core DNA and reason for being and that will never change! We’re fired up about what’s ahead for GoPro and want to share a little more about what our proposed merger with Starman means for our future. Thanks to the improved financial strength this merger will provide, we’ll be in a much better position to innovate, invent and advance the future of consumer and professional content creation. And importantly, Starman shares our passion for the GoPro brand, developing market leading products and our commitment to your collective stoke. We’ve accumulated more than 2500 patents over the last 24 years which tells you we’ve been busy innovating, and this merger will ensure we’re able to innovate for many more years to come. We expect this merger will make GoPro a stronger, more capable camera company than ever before. Our goal is to become a more diversified company which can make us stronger financially, enabling GoPro to become as awesome as we (and you) want us to be. We plan to bring you more innovative cameras, smarter accessories, and more powerful software and services designed to make capturing, editing and sharing your experiences easier and more exciting than ever. We see opportunities to improve the products you already love while developing new tools and experiences that help you create, connect and share in entirely new ways. We have so much more to do, so much more to invent, and so much more we want to bring to the GoPro community. We appreciate all of you who have been on this journey with us and we’re excited about where we’re headed. We’re going to keep doing what we do best - making the world’s highest-performance cameras and building the products, services and innovations that help you capture life’s most exciting moments. It’s what we were founded to do and it’s what we will always do. Be a HERO…GoPro. With respect and appreciation — Nick GoPro Founder & CEO