Wearable sports camera maker GoPro Inc’s initial public offering was priced at $24 per share, an underwriter said, valuing the company at up to $2.96 billion.<\/p>\n
GoPro’s IPO raised about $427.2 million, after the offering of 17.8 million class A shares was priced at the top end of the expected range of $21-$24 per share.<\/p>\n
The San Mateo, California-based company sold 8.9 million shares in the IPO, while the rest were offered by selling stockholders.<\/p>\n
The company sells just one camera design under the Hero brand, which retails for between $199.99 and $399.99, and is extremely popular among athletes and action enthusiasts such as surfers, divers, skateboarders and cyclists.<\/p>\n
Olympic gold medal winning snowboarder Shaun White and 11-time world champion surfer Kelly Slater are some of the well known names to have endorsed the company’s cameras.<\/p>\n
GoPro’s founder and Chief Executive Officer Nicholas Woodman and his family are the company’s biggest stockholders, with a total stake of 49 percent.<\/p>\n
GoPro is the first consumer-electronic company to go public since the 2011 debut of headphones maker Skullcandy Inc SKUL.O.<\/p>\n
“There probably hasn\u2019t been a consumer electronics brand as dominant as GoPro has been in its category since the early days of the iPod or the iPad,” Dougherty & Co analyst Charlie Anderson said in a note to clients.<\/p>\n
GoPro plans to use the proceeds from the offering for debt repayment and investment purposes. The company had about $110.7 million in debt as of March 31.<\/p>\n
GoPro, whose cameras are used by the Discovery Channel and ESPN, reported a rise of 8 percent in revenue to $235.7 million for the three months ended March 31. Net income fell to $11 million from $23 million.<\/p>\n
GoPro hired Tony Bates, former Microsoft Corp MSFT.O executive vice president of business development, as its president early this month.<\/p>\n
The company is expected to debut on the Nasdaq on Thursday under the symbol “GPRO”.<\/p>\n
J.P. Morgan, Citigroup and Barclays are the lead underwriters of the IPO.<\/p>\n
GoPro camera maker going public<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Alibaba files $1-billion IPO in US<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n