GoPro, the video camera maker favored by extreme athletes, in a statement announced plans for an initial public offering of stock.
The company on Friday said it had filed its IPO confidentially Feb. 7 under a provision of the 2012 JOBS act aimed at companies with annual revenues of less than $1 billion. The move provides the Securities and Exchange Commission time to request changes away from public view. GoPro also won't have to reveal its financials until shortly before shares begin to trade. Twitter filed a similar confidential IPO in September 2013 as well as cloud storage company Box in December.
Sources told the Wall Street Journal that GoPro plans to raise roughly $400 million, though the final amount has yet to be decided. The deal is expected to reach the market with the overall valuation hoped to be well above the $2.3 billion it was valued at in a 2012 fundraising round.
The San Mateo-based company, founded in 2004, makes a range of durable cameras that are typically mounted on the head or body of the filmmaker, typically on motorbike handles, surfboards, ski helmets and the like. They’re waterproof and suitable for activities like skiing, skydiving, surfing, and more, according to GoPro’s website. The devices range in price from $199 to $399.
In the past few years, GoPro's $300-$400 Hero devices pioneered the market for wide-angle-lens cameras that people use to film their feats and post them on YouTube and other social sites. It sponsors several athletes competing at the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics including star snowboarder Shaun White and Julia Mancuso, a slalom skier.
In perhaps the most famous stunt filmed using GoPro cameras, daredevil Felix Baumgartner leapt from a platform more than 24 miles high in 2012, breaking his own record for highest sky dive and becoming the first person to break the sound barrier outside of an aircraft. Baumgartner was featured in a GoPro Super Bowl commercial this year. Beyond sports, fire fighters are among those that use GoPro cameras on the job and later review footage as part of their training.
In November, Founder and CEO Nick Woodman in a “60 Minutes” said the company's revenue was doubling each year and reached more than $500 million in 2012.
The IPO filing news comes three days after the company announced that it had hired former Qualcomm executive Jack Lazar as its new chief financial officer to replace Kurt Amundson. Lazar has previous experience taking a company public, serving as CFO of Atheros during its 2004 IPO. Lazar served various roles at Atheros until last year, including helping to oversee the company's sale to Qualcomm in 2011.
“As both a premier consumer products company and an enabler of compelling media content, GoPro is a high-growth company with a strong track record for innovation and for defining new markets,” Lazar said in a statement on his hiring.
GoPro has received less than $300 million in venture funding, with the latest and largest round pulling in $200 million in late 2012 from Hon Hai Industry, also known as FoxConn, an Asian manufacturing company known for its contract work with Apple, Hewlett-Packard and other consumer electronics companies. That investment valued the company at $2.25 billion and still reportedly left Woodman with ownership of nearly half of GoPro.
JPMorgan is reported to be a lead banker on the offering. The timing of the filing's public release, and the offering itself, will depend on the number of revisions the Securities and Exchange Commission requires in the private process.
