GoPro, the motion digital camera maker as soon as price greater than $10 billion, simply introduced that founder Nicholas Woodman will prolong $20 million in financing to maintain his firm afloat.
That’s the Nicholas Woodman who beforehand remodeled $284 million in a single 12-month span, making him the best paid chief govt within the US that yr.
Nonetheless a billionaire at this time, because of years of GoPro inventory and compensation, Woodman is slowly changing into its lender of final resort.
As a condolence for presiding over a 99% inventory decline from the corporate’s peak, he’s returning a fraction of the fortune he made to maintain issues working.
Via entities affiliated with Woodman, he’s agreed to carry $20 million in senior secured notes plus warrants to buy Class B shares, the category that already provides him majority voting management.
Woodman framed it as a vote of confidence. “My financing displays my enthusiasm for GoPro and its a number of go-forward alternatives,” he stated within the announcement, including that an unbiased board committee had reviewed a variety of financing choices and concluded the construction supplied essentially the most favorable phrases for GoPro and its shareholders.
GoPro was buying and selling above $98 per share on October 7, 2014. It closed yesterday at $0.73, a decline of 99%.
From highest-paid CEO to lender of final resort
Even by 2014 requirements, Woodman’s govt compensation package deal was extraordinary.
Woodman obtained 4.5 million restricted inventory items three weeks earlier than GoPro’s June 2014 preliminary public providing (IPO), a grant price $284 million by the top of that yr and sufficient for him to rank #1 on Bloomberg’s Pay Index.
His private fortune tracked the hype for reasonably priced cameras for sports activities and out of doors content material creators, peaking close to $3.9 billion per the 2014 version of the Forbes 400.
The delta between then and now, nonetheless, defines that story.
GoPro shareholders made Woodman a billionaire. Now, those self same shareholders are counting on him to fund operations.
By 2018, GoPro had already reduce Woodman’s wage to $1. The gesture was alleged to look humble and sacrificial, aside from individuals who remembered that his GoPro inventory and compensation would maintain him a billionaire.
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Declining numbers and a bailout
GoPro inventory is down roughly 48% year-to-date and greater than 93% over the previous 5 years. The corporate’s market cap is now roughly $123 million or lower than a single yr of Woodman’s peak govt compensation.
Income has additionally declined by from $1.6 billion in 2015 to roughly $650 million in 2025.
GoPro earned $128 million in 2014. After years of losses, its shareholder fairness had turned unfavorable by the primary quarter of 2026.
The rescue makes an attempt stored coming. The corporate borrowed $50 million from Farallon Capital Administration in August 2025, then Woodman’s household belief purchased $2 million of inventory in November.
In Might 2026, the board launched a assessment of strategic alternate options. By June 2026, an SEC submitting carried a going-concern warning.
Woodman’s $20 million is the most recent patch, and this time the capital comes instantly from the founder.
