GoPro cuts hundreds of jobs in its drone division: report

GoPro is laying off 200–300 employees this week, mostly from the part of the company that works on the Karma drone, according to TechCrunch. A letter was reportedly sent to these employees this week which stated that the company is restructuring “to better align our resources with business requirements,” though they will remain on the payroll until the middle of February.

This would be the fourth round of layoffs at GoPro since 2016. CEO Nick Woodman reported that the company had 1,254 employees as recently as November of last year. A representative for the company declined to comment.

After enduring a dismal financial year in 2016, GoPro had rebounded moderately in 2017. The California company recorded its first profitable quarter in two years, and previous rounds of layoffs and restructuring seemed to have the company headed in the right direction. While the company has yet to release information about how well the Hero 6 Black performed during the holiday season, GoPro’s newest camera initially sold well and impressed reviewers following its fall release.

The performance and reception of the Karma, GoPro’s first drone, haunted the company throughout 2017, however. GoPro released Karma in October 2016, and recalled it just weeks later (on the night of the presidential election, no less) because of a problematic battery connector that caused some drones to fall from the sky. The company fixed the problem and put the drone back on store shelves the following February, but Karma struggled to compete in a market dominated by Chinese dronemaker DJI. (The two companies were once in talks to collaborate on GoPro’s drone, but the deal fell through.)

Woodman announced at last year’s CES that the company was working on followups to the Karma. It’s unclear at the moment how these layoffs might affect those plans.