After years of financial struggles, action camera pioneer GoPro is being acquired for $285 million.
A company called “Starman Optical” has agreed to merge with GoPro. The deal involves Starman Optical paying GoPro shareholders $1.14 per share, and leaving those shareholders with about 10% of the newly combined company. The deal, expected to close by the end of this year, will wipe away GoPro’s outstanding debt of $92 million.
The merger, announced Tuesday morning, comes a few months after GoPro revealed it was considering pivoting from building cameras to becoming a defense tech company. A day or so ago, YouTuber Markiplier revealed he had amassed an 8.5% stake in GoPro.
That appears to still be on the cards, as the company said the merger will “maximize the value of GoPro’s IP and growth potential in consumer, commercial and defense markets by recapitalizing the company, strengthening its balance sheet, investing in growth and onshoring the manufacturing of products for strategic markets.”
GoPro will also “fully support” its existing consumer products while “investing in growth and a broader, diversified product roadmap.”
It’s not exactly clear what all that means, and Starman Optical doesn’t have a significant track record to judge its performance.
The company bills itself as an “optical-photonics company focused on the development and domestic manufacturing of optical transceivers and related photonics technologies through its Starman New Photonics business.” Both Starman Optical and Starman New Photonics are part of Starman Holdings, which owns consumer tech brands like Incase, Incipio and Griffin.
Starman Optical was only incorporated in Delaware on August 31, while Starman New Photonics appears to have been created in 2025, and is building a manufacturing facility in New Jersey.
“Advanced optics and imaging are essential to AI, national security, and the broader economy, yet much of the critical hardware supporting these technologies continues to be manufactured overseas,” Charles Tebele, the CEO of Starman Holdings, said in a statement. “The combination of GoPro’s world-class optical expertise and intellectual property with Starman’s advanced transceiver capabilities and U.S. manufacturing platform creates a unique opportunity. Together, we intend to bring production of these critical components back to the United States.”
GoPro went public in 2014, when its action cameras were selling millions of units per year. In the decade since, the company tried branching into new categories like drones and 360-degree cameras, but it didn’t find much luck with either. GoPro then refocused on high-performing versions of its action cameras, and kept them targeted at pros, prosumers and athletes, but it had to conduct multiple rounds of layoffs as it narrowed the business.
In June, GoPro warned shareholders that it may go out of business without new funding. The following month, founder and CEO Nick Woodman said he was putting $20 million into the business to keep things going.
“We expect this merger to enable GoPro to grow across consumer, commercial and defense markets as a leading American imaging and optical solutions company, addressing important areas of national security related to cameras, optics and AI infrastructure. We’re excited to combine with the Starman team to capitalize on this opportunity and play an important role in America’s future,” Woodman said in a statement.
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Sean O'Kane Sr. Reporter, Transportation
Sean O’Kane is a reporter who has spent a decade covering the rapidly-evolving business and technology of the transportation industry, including Tesla and the many startups chasing Elon Musk. Most recently, he was a reporter at Bloomberg News where he helped break stories about some of the most notorious EV SPAC flops. He previously worked at The Verge, where he also covered consumer technology, hosted many short- and long-form videos, performed product and editorial photography, and once nearly passed out in a Red Bull Air Race plane.
You can contact or verify outreach from Sean by emailing sean.okane@techcrunch.com or via encrypted message at okane.01 on Signal.
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