Drone failure leads to crash

When you’re hoping to enthuse the market about a company, it doesn’t hurt to have a sexy back story, and Gopro’s was a beaut. After his first dot-com failed, founder Nick Woodman took the sensible approach and went off on a fivemonth surfing trip round Australia and Indonesia.

His initial idea was to design a strap to attach a camera to a surfer’s wrist, but he then spent a couple of years tinkering and came up with a prototype 35 mm camera of his own.

Initial capital was raised by flogging bead and shell belts from his camper van. It didn’t hurt to have a father who was a prominent investment banker, and who shipped in some proper loot.

Soon 35 mm was replaced by digital, video capability was added, the potential applications in other sports were blindingly obvious, and before long anybody who jumped on a mountain bike or strapped on a pair of skis had to have a Gopro to record the heroic adventures to come.

After an IPO at US$24 in 2014 the share price rocketed to $86.

But competitors were arriving and the company entered the drone market, with disastrous effect.

Its Karma drone arrived late, it had power-failure issues which prompted a recall, and it was a bit rubbish.

Market leader DJI’S equivalent model was lighter, faster, cheaper, had better battery life and the obstacleavoidance and follow features that Gopros lacked.

Dismal holiday sales have forced the company to exit the drone business and announce another restructuring. The share price is wallowing around $5 — bad karma indeed.