UNITED STATES
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
WASHINGTON, D.C. 20549
FORM 10-K/A10-K
For the fiscal year ended December 31, 2019
☐ TRANSITION REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934
For the transition period from ________________ to ________________
Commission file number: 001-36514
GOPRO, INC.
(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)
| Delaware | 77-0629474 | ||
| (State or other jurisdiction of incorporation or organization) | (I.R.S. Employer Identification No.) | ||
| 3000 Clearview Way | |||
| San Mateo, | California | 94402 | |
| (Address of principal executive offices) | (Zip Code) | ||
| (650) | 332-7600 |
(Registrant’s telephone number, including area code)
Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:
| Trading Symbol(s) | ||
| Class A Common Stock | GPRO | NASDAQ Global Select Market |
Securities registered pursuant to section 12(g) of the Act: None
Indicate by check mark if the Registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act. Yesþ☑ No ¨☐
Indicate by check mark if the Registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or Section 15(d) of Act. Yes ¨☐Noþ☑
Indicate by check mark whether the Registrantregistrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days. Yesþ No ¨☐
Indicate by check mark whether the Registrantregistrant has submitted electronically and posted on its corporate Website, if any, every Interactive Data File required to be submitted and posted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the Registrantregistrant was required to submit and post such files). Yesþ No ¨
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, or a smaller reporting company, or an emerging growth company. See the definitions of “large accelerated filer,” “accelerated filer”filer,” “smaller reporting company,” and “smaller reporting“emerging growth company” in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act.
Accelerated filer ☐ Emerging growth company ☐
Non-accelerated filer ☐
If an emerging growth company, indicatedindicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act. ☐
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act). Yes ☐ No þ☑
The aggregate market value of the voting stock held by non-affiliates of the registrant as of June 30, 2016,2019, the last business day of the registrant'sregistrant’s most recently completed second fiscal quarter, was approximately $1,097,400,000$677,709,000 based upon the closing price reported for such date on the NASDAQThe Nasdaq Global Select Market.
As of January 31, 2017, 105,351,5782020, 127,099,096 and 36,760,41528,896,866 shares of Class A and Class B common stock were outstanding, respectively.
DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE
Portions of the registrant’s definitive proxy statement for its 20172020 Annual Meeting of Stockholders (the “Proxy Statement”) that was, to be filed on April 26, 2017within 120 days of the registrant’s fiscal year ended December 31, 2019, are incorporated by reference in Part II and Part III of thethis Annual Report on Form 10-K.
Except with respect to information specifically incorporated by reference in thethis Annual Report on Form 10-K, the Proxy Statement is not deemed to be filed as part of thethis Annual Report on Form 10-K10-K.
GoPro, Inc. (the "Company") is filing this Amendment No. 1 ("Amendment No. 1") to its Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2016, filed on February 16, 2017 (the "Original 10-K"). The Company is filing this Amendment No. 1 to:
Index
| Page | ||
| PART I | ||
| Item 1. | ||
| Item 1A. | ||
| Item 1B. | ||
| Item 2. | ||
| Item 3. | ||
| Item 4. | ||
| PART II | ||
| Item 5. | ||
| Item 6. | ||
| Item 7. | ||
| Item 7A. | ||
| Item 8. | ||
| Item 9. | ||
| Item 9A. | ||
| Item 9B. | ||
| PART III | ||
| Item 10. | ||
| Item 11. | ||
| Item 12. | ||
| Item 13. | ||
| Item 14. | ||
| PART IV | ||
| Item 15. | ||
| Item 16. | ||
PART I
Special note regarding forward-looking statements
This Annual Report on Form 10-K of GoPro, Inc. (GoPro or we or the Company) includes forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements other than statements of historical fact, including statements regarding guidance, industry prospects, product and marketing plans, or future results of operations or financial position, made in this Annual Report on Form 10-K are forward-looking. To identify forward-looking statements, we use words such as “expect,” “anticipate,” “believe,” “may,” “will,” “estimate,” “intend,” “target,” “goal,” “plan,” “likely,” “potentially,” or variations of such words and similar expressions. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of their date. If any of management’s assumptions prove incorrect or should unanticipated circumstances arise, the Company’s actual results could materially differ from those anticipated by such forward-looking statements. The differences could be caused by a number of factors or combination of factors including, but not limited to, those factors identified under Item 1ARisk Factors. Forward-looking statements include plans to expand and improve product offerings in Item 1Business and other sections of this Annual Report on Form 10-K, projections of results of operations, and any discussion of the trends and other factors that drive our business and future results in Item 7Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations, and other sections of this Annual Report on Form 10-K including but not limited to Item 1ARisk Factors. Readers are strongly encouraged to consider the foregoing when evaluating any forward-looking statements concerning the Company. The Company does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statements in this Annual Report on Form 10-K to reflect future events or developments.
Item 1. Business
Overview
GoPro helps its consumers capture and share their experiences in immersive and exciting ways. Our cameras, mountable and wearable accessories, and subscription services have generated substantially all of our revenue. We sell our products globally through retailers, distributors and on gopro.com.
Our product offerings include the following:
| • | HERO8 Black is our flagship camera launched in the Fall of 2019, featuring enhanced HyperSmooth 2.0 image stabilization, TimeWarp Video 2.0, built-in mounting, live streaming, cloud connectivity, voice control, improved audio and touch display. HyperSmooth 2.0 image stabilization includes dramatically improved pitch axis stabilization, a new Boost mode for absolute maximum stabilization, and powerful in-app horizon leveling that provides gimbal-like stability. TimeWarp Video 2.0 automatically applies a high-speed, ‘magic-carpet-ride’ effect to videos, while live streaming enables users to share content in real time to Facebook, Twitch, YouTube, Vimeo and other social media platforms. Our HERO8 Black camera is powered by GoPro’s custom designed GP1 processor and is the most powerful and performance featured GoPro camera to date. We also introduced three new accessories for the HERO8 Black camera, called Mods, which enables users to transform their HERO8 Black camera into a production powerhouse. The Media Mod delivers shotgun-mic performance with an integrated directional microphone, the Light Mod illuminates a scene and the Display Mod allows users to perfectly frame themselves during self-capture. We also continue to offer our HERO7 Black and HERO7 Silver cameras which were launched in the Fall of 2018. Our cameras are compatible with our ecosystem of mountable and wearable accessories, and feature automatic uploading capabilities for photos and videos to GoPro Plus, our subscription service. |
| • | MAX is our newest 360-degree waterproof camera launched in the Fall of 2019, featuring MAX HyperSmooth image stabilization, 360-degree MAX TimeWarp Video, MAX SuperView, PowerPano, built-in mounting, high-quality audio, live streaming, voice control and a front facing touch display. MAX HyperSmooth provides the highest performance video stabilization yet, while MAX SuperView provides the widest field of view ever from a GoPro camera. PowerPano allows users to capture a 6.2mp, 270-degree panoramic photo with the push of a button and creates an artifact-free shot of action or movement. Our MAX camera features six built-in microphones that allows users to capture immersive 360-degree audio, directional audio for vlogging and the best stereo sound ever from a GoPro. |
| • | GoPro Plusis our subscription service that provides a camera protection plan and enables subscribers to easily access, edit and share content. GoPro Plus includes unlimited cloud storage supporting source video and photo quality, as well as discounts on accessories, camera replacement and damage protection. Our HERO5 Black and newer cameras can automatically upload photos and videos to a subscriber’s GoPro Plus account at the highest possible quality. |
| • | GoPro App is a mobile app that seamlessly uploads a user’s GoPro photos and video clips to a smartphone. Our GoPro app now incorporates a video editing solution, which includes an improved multi-clip workflow that enables the GoPro app to better identify meaningful moments in users footage, and suggest story compilations of photos and videos. In addition, the GoPro app allows users to mix and match filters for a highly-customizable editing experience and offers an expanded library of soundtracks and support. |
We also offer a full ecosystem of mountable and wearable accessories. See Products for additional information.
We believe our investments in hardware, cloud and mobile solutions have yielded a solid foundational experience for consumers that we will continue to build upon in 2020.
Our strategy
Helping our consumers capture and share their experiences in immersive and exciting ways is at the core of our business. We are committed to developing solutions that create an easy, seamless experience for consumers to capture, create and share engaging personal content. When consumers use our products and services, they often generate and share content that increases awareness for GoPro, driving a virtuous cycle and a self-reinforcing demand for our products. We believe revenue growth will be driven by the introduction of new cameras, accessories, subscription offerings and GoPro app monetization. We believe new or improved camera features drive a replacement cycle among existing users and attract new users. Additionally, our goal to expand our total addressable market will be through the monetization of a new GoPro app experience that we believe addresses widespread pain points that anyone with a smartphone or GoPro faces. Key components of our 2020 strategy and beyond include the following:
Strengthen our Core Business.We plan to focus on our target consumers, identify new consumer segments, and deliver high-value, high-margin products to strengthen our core business. Our continued commitment and investment in consumer research and analytics is fundamental to our strategy, and will help us design better products and services for our consumers. We believe that extending GoPro’s brand and products will solve problems for a broader set of consumers. We plan to further leverage analytics and integrate a deeper understanding of our most important consumer segments and new consumer segments across the business to optimize the next generation of our products and go-to-market strategies. Additionally, we will seek to leverage our brand strength and product expertise to drive a hardware upgrade cycle for our consumers, opportunistically enter complementary new device categories, and continue to develop cameras.
Maximize our Direct Business.We see an opportunity to increase our direct business, which includes gopro.com, and direct to retailer sales, which are typically higher gross margin sales than our distribution business. As gopro.com represents a growing percentage of our direct business and revenue, we also expect to grow our gross margins. We will focus on scaling our direct business to improve the customer experience on gopro.com and within our retail channel, and as a result, we expect these efforts will also allow us to improve our operating results.
Grow Digital Service and Subscription Offerings.We plan to maximize the experience for GoPro camera owners and extend our software solutions to smartphone owners, thereby expanding our total addressable market. We believe eliminating the pain points involved in managing content, and producing and sharing immersive experiences delivers on the promise of the GoPro experience for our target consumer. Our HERO5 and newer cameras, GoPro Plus, and apps work together to enable an ecosystem that allows users to capture, edit and share experiences, and easily back-up content in the cloud. In 2019, we continued to advance and simplify the mobile experience for our consumers, incorporating a video editing solution into the GoPro app for a simplified one-app experience, and intend to continue to scale the relevance and functionality of the GoPro app to appeal to not just GoPro camera owners but to smartphone owners as well.
Improve Efficiency and Reliability.We will continue to focus on strengthening our operational excellence to ensure reliability and predictability.We expect to operate at a similar operating expense level in 2020 from 2019, with a focus on awareness, demand generation, our future roadmap, and a continued commitment to insights and analytics to better manage and improve the predictability of our business. Our future success will depend, in part, upon our ability to manage our operating expenses effectively. Since the fourth quarter of 2016, we implemented three company-wide restructurings of our business resulting in a reduction in our global workforce, the elimination of several high-cost initiatives (including the closure of our aerial products business) and the consolidation of certain leased office facilities, in order to focus our resources on our cameras and accessories, cloud and service businesses. (See Item 7Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations for information regarding restructuring charges in 2019, 2018 and 2017.)
Empower our People: Deepen our Talent Development, Culture and Commitment. In every area of our company, we aspire to retain employees committed to growing GoPro through great ideas and innovation. We plan to do this by leveraging our strong brand recognition, unique culture, competitive compensation and benefits, and our strong commitment to our Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging initiative. GoPro’s culture has been central to our ability to attract top talent. The hallmark of the GoPro employment brand is a closely-knit community, referred to as the GoPro Family, who work collaboratively in a lively workplace and are supported by competitive compensation and benefits, growth opportunities and engaging programs to support professional development.
Cameras. We offer a good-better-best camera line-up that includes our cloud connected HERO7 Silver, HERO7 Black and HERO8 Black cameras. We also offer MAX, our newest waterproof 360-degree camera. HERO7 Silver, HERO7 Black, HERO8 Black and MAX cameras are durable, waterproof (without a housing), come with select mounting accessories, and have built-in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth providing connectivity with a mobile device to enable remote control, content viewing, editing and sharing functionality. Our HERO8 Black and HERO7 Black cameras can shoot video in 4K at 60 frames per second, while our HERO7 Silver camera can shoot video in 4K at 30 frames per second. MAX captures video in 360-degrees at 6K resolution and stitches to 5.6K. All of our current cameras feature multi-language voice and contextual control, electronic image stabilization, a simplified user experience, and the ability to auto-upload photos and videos to GoPro Plus via Wi-Fi for easy access and editing with our app. HERO8 Black, HERO7 Black, HERO7 Silver and MAX also feature GPS and additional sensors that capture location, elevation, speed and G-force loads.
Mounts and accessories. We offer a wide range of mounts and accessories, either bundled with a camera or sold separately, that enhance the functionality and versatility of our products, and enable our consumers to capture their experiences during a variety of activities or moments from different viewpoints. Our equipment-based mounts include three Mods which allows users to transform their HERO8 Black camera into a production powerhouse. The Media Mod delivers shotgun-mic performance with an integrated directional microphone, the Light Mod illuminates a scene and the Display Mod allows users to perfectly frame themselves during self-capture. Other equipment-based mounts include helmet, handlebar, roll bar and tripod mounts. Our 3-way mount is a 3-in-1 mount that can be used as a camera grip, extension arm or tripod, and our floating mounts such as the Handler, and Bite Mount + Floaty, allow our cameras to float in water. We also enable consumers to wear mounts on their bodies with the use of our magnetic swivel clip, wrist housing, chest harness and head strap. Additionally, we offer colored camera sleeves, spare batteries, dive filters and charging accessories and cables to connect our GoPro cameras to computers, laptops and television monitors. Our accessories expand the features, versatility and convenience of our cameras.
Applications.We offer mobile and desktop applications to all consumers at no charge that provide a complete media workflow for downloading, editing, multi-clip story creation, and sharing content on the fly using a smartphone or desktop. Additionally, the GoPro applications seamlessly integrate a user’s GoPro into the media workflow by allowing remote control of the camera using a smartphone for camera content capture and offload. Using a GoPro MAX or Fusion, the GoPro applications enable creating, editing and sharing 360-degree camera content and enables users to re-frame the 360-degree camera content to save traditional fixed-perspective videos. The GoPro app now incorporates a video editing solution to better identify meaningful moments in users footage and suggest story compilations of photos and videos. In addition, the GoPro app allows users to mix and
match filters for a highly-customizable editing experience and offers an expanded library of soundtracks and support.
Services. GoPro Plus is a subscription service that offers a range of benefits to our consumers, including damage protection, camera replacement, on-the-go access to a user’s photos and videos, storage of unlimited photos and videos, editing and sharing capabilities using a smartphone and the GoPro app, an expanded library of soundtracks, premium support, and exclusive discounts on mounts and accessories. We had more than 334,000 paying subscribers as of January 31, 2020. Revenue earned to date from GoPro Plus was not material to our results.
Seasonality
Historically, we have experienced our highest levels of revenue in the fourth quarter of the year, coinciding with the holiday shopping season, particularly in the United States and Europe. While we aim to reduce the impact of fourth quarter seasonality on full year performance, timely and effective product introductions and forecasting, whether just prior to the holiday season or otherwise, are critical to our operations and financial performance.
Segment information and geographic data
We operate as one reportable segment. Financial information about geographic areas is presented in Note 10 Concentrations of risk and geographic information, to the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
Backlog
We do not believe that backlog information is material or meaningful as of any particular date or indicative of future sales, as our customers can change or cancel orders with limited or no penalty and limited advance notice prior to shipment.
Research and development
We are passionate about developing new and innovative products that inspire our consumers and enhance our brand. We are constantly innovating to deliver better performance, expanded functionality and increased convenience to enhance the appeal of our products. We strive to remain a market leader by consistently introducing innovative products, software and services that offer optimal performance at affordable price points.
We have a user experience-driven approach to product development and our CEO leads product design. By engaging with customers, consumers and opinion leaders in our core markets around the world, our development team strives to introduce meaningful and empowering new features that expand the versatility and performance of our products. We also benefit from input received from our in-house production team, our sponsored athletes and our brand advocates that regularly travel the world capturing content using our products. We believe leveraging this input will help refine our existing products and influence future products that give us a competitive advantage.
Our engineering team supports the development of cameras, related mounts and accessories, firmware and software. Our hardware engineering team is responsible for developing technologies to support the concepts developed by our product team. These core technologies include GoPro’s custom designed GP1 processor, which allows cameras to perform advanced image computation and provides unparalleled image quality and next-level image stabilization, new image silicon processors, image sensors and lenses, as well as the core algorithms that enable the systems to operate and provide optimal performance and features. Our hardware engineering team also integrates these innovations and firmware into our product designs and develops our cameras, mounts and accessories.
Our software engineering team develops applications that enhance the functionality of our products and facilitate the management, editing, sharing and viewing of content. These applications are being developed for mobile, desktop and web-based platforms. Our core technologies include rendering engines to enable smooth video playback and editing, algorithms for moment identification, automatic story creation as well as cloud-based media storage, analysis and playback.
Manufacturing, logistics and fulfillment
Our products are designed and developed in the United States, France, China and Romania, and a significant majority of our manufacturing is outsourced to contract manufacturers located in China, Mexico, Japan and Malaysia. In 2019, we moved most of our United States bound camera production from China to Mexico, a change catalyzed by tariff-related concerns. We believe that using outsourced manufacturing enables greater scale and flexibility than establishing our own manufacturing facilities. Several key strategic parts are purchased from suppliers by us and then consigned to our manufacturers, while the vast majority of parts are procured directly by our contract manufacturers. Our strategic commodities team manages the pricing and supply of the key components of our cameras, including digital signal processors, sensors and lenses, and we leverage their expertise to achieve competitive pricing on the largest value-add components and leverage our contract manufacturers’ volume purchases for best pricing on common parts.
We have third-party facilities in China and Mexico for final pack-out of our finished products. These finished products are shipped to fulfillment centers in California, Kentucky, Netherlands, Hong Kong and Singapore that deliver our products to our customers.
Sales channels and customers
We offer our products in over 30,000 retail outlets and in over 100 countries through our direct sales channel and indirectly through our distribution channel. In 2019 and 2018, our direct sales accounted for 46% and 48% of our revenue, respectively, of which, revenue from gopro.com represented 23% and 16% of our direct sales revenue, respectively, and our distributors accounted for 54% and 52% of our revenue, respectively.
Direct sales
We sell directly to most of our retailers in the United States, some of our retailers in Europe and to consumers worldwide through our e-commerce channel.
Independent specialty retailers. We use a network of location-based independent manufacturer representatives to sell our products to independent specialty retailers in the United States focused on sports and consumer activity capture markets. Our representatives provide highly personalized service to these retailers, including in-store merchandising, taking orders and providing clinics to educate retail sales personnel about GoPro products and services. We also have an internal, regionally focused sales team that provides a secondary level of service to both the independent specialty retailers and manufacturer representatives. Independent specialty retailers generally carry our higher end products, targeting their core customers who we believe tend to be early adopters of new technologies. Independent specialty retailers outside of the United States represent a similarly important sales channel for us, and we reach these customers indirectly through our network of international distributors.
Big box retailers. We sell to large retailers with a national presence, including Amazon.com, Inc., Best Buy, Inc., Target Corporation, Wal-Mart, Inc., Dixons Carphone and Fnac. We support these retailers with a dedicated and experienced sales management team that we believe enables us to reduce channel conflict.
Mid-market retailers. We also sell to retailers with a large regional or national presence, often focused on specific verticals such as consumer electronics, sporting goods, military, hunting and fishing, and motorsports. In the United States, we sell directly to these mid-market retailers through our experienced sales teams assigned to particular accounts and regions.
E-commerce channel. We sell our full line of products to consumers worldwide through our online store at gopro.com, which we market through online and offline advertising. Sales through gopro.com were more than 10% of our total revenue for 2019 and less than 10% of our total revenue for 2018 and 2017.
Distribution
We sell to over 55 distributors who resell our products to retailers in international and domestic markets. We have dedicated sales personnel focused on providing a high level of service to these distributors, including assisting with product mix planning, channel marketing and in-store merchandising, development of marketing materials, order assistance and educating the distributors’ sales personnel about GoPro products.
In-store merchandising
Our in-store merchandising strategy focuses on our iconic GoPro-branded, video-enabled point of purchase (POP) merchandising displays that are located in nearly all retail outlets where our products are sold. These displays showcase GoPro videos and present our product ecosystem in a customer-friendly manner. Our larger retailers help us represent a broader range of GoPro products due to their in-store deployment of our larger and custom POP displays. We have been successful working with our retailers to further expand the footprint of our POP displays within existing stores. As of December 31, 2019 and 2018, we had approximately 29,000 POP displays in retail outlets worldwide.
Marketing and advertising
Our marketing and advertising programs are focused on engaging consumers by exposing them to compelling GoPro content and educating them about new hardware features as well as the power of our solutions for software editing (mobile and desktop applications) and content management (GoPro Plus). We believe this approach enhances our brand while demonstrating the performance, durability and versatility of our products. Our marketing and advertising efforts span a wide range of consumer interests and leverage both traditional consumer marketing and lifestyle marketing strategies.
Consumer marketing. Social media plays an important role in our consumer marketing strategy. Our consumers capture and share personal GoPro content on social media and content sharing platforms like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, Vimeo and YouTube. In 2019, we gained 4.3 million new followers to our social accounts for a lifetime total of 42.8 million followers. Of the 4.3 million new followers on our social accounts, 2.4 million were on Instagram, resulting in a lifetime total of 19.1 million on Instagram. To date, we have reached 1.4 billion views of content tagged #GoPro on TikTok and more than 2.4 billion views on GoPro’s YouTube channel. We also integrate user-generated content and GoPro originally produced content into advertising campaigns across various platforms including print, online, billboards and other out of home advertising, and at consumer and trade facing events. This content also supports our in-store channel marketing efforts, appearing on our POP displays and other in-store marketing materials. We continue to believe GoPro content remains a significant asset that builds awareness for our brand and products.
Lifestyle marketing. Our lifestyle marketing programs focus on expanding GoPro brand awareness by engaging consumers through relationships with key influencers, event promotions and other outreach efforts. We cultivate strong relationships with influential athletes, celebrities, entertainers and brands, all of whom use our products to create and share engaging content with their own fans and consumers.
Competition
The market for cameras is highly competitive and characterized by frequent product introductions and rapid technological advances. We believe the principal competitive factors impacting the market for our products include quality, reliability and user experience, price and performance, design innovation, brand recognition, marketing and distribution capability, service and support, and brand reputation.
We compete against established, well-known camera manufacturers such as Canon Inc. and Nikon Corporation, as well as large, diversified electronics companies such as, Samsung Electronics Co. and Sony Corporation and specialty companies such as Garmin Ltd., the Ricoh Company, Ltd., Shenzhen Arashi Vision Co., Ltd. and SZ DJI Technology Co., Ltd. We believe we compete favorably with these companies’ products. Our durable and versatile product design facilitates increased functionality and wearability and we offer a variety of mounts and other accessories that enable a wide range of consumer use cases that are difficult for other competing products to address. Further, we offer many professional-grade features within our camera and 360-degree camera product offerings at attractive consumer price points, including our HyperSmooth 2.0 which provides pitch axis stabilization, in-app horizon leveling that provides a gimbal-like effect, super high-resolution video capability, voice control features, and for our 360 experience, OverCapture, which allows a MAX user to capture content from every angle. We also provide users with a suite of free mobile and desktop applications that enhance the overall GoPro experience. Moreover, we believe we have achieved significant brand recognition in our target vertical markets. We believe our years of experience working with active and influential consumers contributes to our ability to develop attractive products and establishes the authenticity of our brand, thereby differentiating us from
current and potential competitors.
Smartphones and tablets with photo and video functionality have significantly displaced the market for traditional camera sales, and the makers of those devices also have mobile and other content editing applications and storage for content captured with those devices. Our GoPro app, GoPro Plus service and Quik desktop editing application may not be as compelling a solution as those offered by other companies, such as Apple, Inc. and Google, although the GoPro app supports content from other platforms including content from iOS and Android. Also, it is possible that, in the future, the manufacturers of such devices, such as Apple, Google and Samsung, may continue to design their products for use in a range of conditions, including challenging physical environments and waterproof capabilities, or develop products with features similar to ours. In addition, new companies may emerge and offer competitive products directly in our category.
Intellectual property
Intellectual property is an important aspect of our business, and our practice is to seek protection for our intellectual property as appropriate. Our trademarks, including “GOPRO,” “HERO” and the GoPro logos, among others, are a critical component of the value of our business. In addition, we hold many issued and pending utility and design patents for innovations that help our consumers capture, create and share their content using our cameras, mounts, accessories and software. Our patents cover areas that include physical structures, image processing, operational firmware and software, post-processing software, distribution software, mount and accessory structures, as well as the ornamental aspects of our hardware and software products. As of December 31, 2019, we had approximately 682 issued patents and 441 patent applications pending in the United States, and 314 corresponding issued patents and 193 patent applications pending in foreign countries. Our issued United States patents will expire approximately between 2022 and 2041 and our issued foreign patents will expire approximately between 2024 and 2039. We cannot be certain that our patent applications will be issued or that any issued patents will provide us with any competitive advantage or will not be challenged by third parties. We continually review our development efforts to assess our innovations, including their patentability. We take active measures to protect our intellectual property against unauthorized third-party use, including misuse of our patents, copyrights, trademarks and other proprietary rights.
In addition to the foregoing protections, we generally control access to and use of our proprietary and other confidential information through the use of internal and external controls, including contractual protections in agreements with employees, contract manufacturers, distributors and others. Despite these protections, we may be unable to prevent third parties from using our intellectual property without our authorization, breaching any nondisclosure agreements with us, or independently developing products that are similar to ours, particularly in those countries where the laws do not protect our proprietary and intellectual property rights as fully as in the United States.
Employees
As of December 31, 2019, we had 926 employees. None of our employees are currently covered by a collective bargaining agreement, and we have experienced no work stoppages.
Corporate and available information
We were incorporated as Woodman Labs, Inc. in California and began doing business as GoPro in February 2004. We reincorporated in Delaware in December 2011 and in February 2014 we changed our name to GoPro, Inc. Our principal executive offices are located at 3000 Clearview Way, San Mateo, California 94402, and our telephone number is (855) 636-3578. We completed our initial public offering in July 2014 and our Class A common stock is listed on The Nasdaq Global Select Market under the symbol “GPRO.” Our Class B common stock is not listed nor traded on any stock exchange.
We have registered and applied to register a number of trademarks with the United States Patent and Trademark Office and the trademark offices of other countries including “GOPRO,” “HERO” and the GoPro logos. This Annual Report on Form 10-K also includes references to trademarks and service marks of other entities, and those trademarks and service marks are the property of their respective owners.
Our website address is www.gopro.com. Through a link on the Investor Relations section of our website, we make available the following filings as soon as reasonably practicable after they are electronically filed with or furnished to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC): our Annual Report on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, Current Reports on Form 8-K and any amendments to those reports filed or furnished pursuant to Section 13(a) or 15(d) of the Exchange Act. All such filings are available free of charge. The information posted on our website is not incorporated into this report. The SEC maintains a website that contains reports, proxy and information statements and other information regarding our filings at www.sec.gov.
Item 1A. Risk Factors
You should carefully consider the risks described below and all other information contained in this Annual Report on Form 10-K before making an investment decision. The risk factors below do not identify all risks that we face; our operations could also be affected by factors that are not presently known to us or that we currently consider to be immaterial to our operations. In that event, the trading price of our shares may decline, and you may lose part or all of your investment.
Risks related to our business and industry
We may not be able to achieve revenue growth or profitability in the future, and if revenue growth or profitability is achieved, we may not be able to sustain it.
Our historical results should not be considered as indicative of our future performance. For example, our annual revenue growth has been flat beginning in 2016, 2017 and 2018 with annual revenues of $1.185 billion, $1.180 billion and $1.148 billion, respectively, and moderate growth in 2019 with annual revenue of $1.195 billion. In future periods, we could experience declines in revenue, or revenue could remain flat or grow more slowly than we expect, which could have a material negative effect on our future operating results.
We also incurred operating losses of $2.3 million, $94.0 millionand $163.5 million for the full year 2019, 2018 and2017, respectively. Lower levels of revenue or higher levels of operating expense in future periods may result in additional losses or limited profitability. Since the fourth quarter of 2016, we implemented three company-wide restructurings of our business resulting in a reduction in our global workforce and the elimination of certain open positions, consolidation of certain leased office facilities, as well as the elimination of several high-cost initiatives, including the closure of our aerial products business, in order to focus our resources on cameras and accessories, cloud and services businesses. We may not realize further cost savings from these previous actions. We may continue to incur significant losses in the future for a number of reasons, including other risks described in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, and we may encounter unforeseen expenses, difficulties, complications, delays and other unknown factors.
Our future growth depends in part on further penetrating our total addressable market, and we may not be successful in doing so.
Our growth historically has largely been fueled by the adoption of our products by people looking to self-capture images of themselves participating in exciting physical activities. We believe that our future growth depends on continuing to reach and expand our core community of users, followers and fans, and then utilizing that energized community as brand ambassadors to an extended community. We believe that in order to expand our market, we must provide both innovative and easy-to-use products, as well as intuitive and easy-to-use software tools that enable effortless editing and sharing of content, with the smartphone central to the GoPro experience. While we believe our software and subscription services will increase our total addressable market, we cannot be certain that these efforts will be successful. We may not be able to expand our market through this strategy on a timely basis, or at all, and we may not be successful in providing tools that our users adopt or believe are easy to use.
We plan to further build upon our integrated storytelling solutions, such as the GoPro app, HERO8 Black camera, MAX and GoPro Plus subscription solution in future periods, and our investments in these products and solutions, including marketing and advertising expenses, may not successfully drive increases in sales of our products and our users may not adopt our new offerings. If we are not successful in broadening our user base to reach more of our core customers with our integrated solutions, our future revenue growth will be negatively affected, and we
may not recognize benefits from our investments in the various components of our storytelling solutions, and the marketing, sales and advertising costs to promote our solution.
Our growth also depends on expanding our market with new capture perspectives with our 360-degree camera, MAX, which is a resource-intensive initiative in a highly competitive market, and by adding versatility to our products with expansion mods for HERO8 Black. While we are investing resources, including software development, sales and marketing, to reach these expanded and new consumer markets, we cannot be assured that we will be successful in doing so. If we are not successful in penetrating additional markets, we might not be able to grow our revenue and we may not recognize benefits from our investment in new areas. For example, we made significant investments in the aerial market, but decided in the first quarter of 2018 to close our aerial business in light of difficult market and regulatory conditions, and margin challenges.
To remain competitive and stimulate consumer demand, we must effectively manage product introductions, product transitions, product pricing and marketing.
We believe that we must continually develop and introduce new products, enhance our existing products, and effectively stimulate customer demand for new and upgraded products and services to maintain or increase our revenue. The markets for our products and services are characterized by intense competition, evolving distribution models, disruptive technology developments, short product life cycles, customer price sensitivity and frequent product introductions.
The success of new product introductions depends on a number of factors including, but not limited to, timely and successful research and development, pricing, market and consumer acceptance, effective forecasting and management of product demand, purchase commitments and inventory levels, availability of products in appropriate quantities to meet anticipated demand, ability to obtain timely and adequate delivery of components for our new products from third-party suppliers, management of any changes in major component suppliers, management of manufacturing and supply costs, management of risks associated with new product production ramp-up issues, and the risk that new products may have quality issues or other defects or bugs in the early stages of introduction including testing of new parts and features. With respect to management and supply costs, we may be impacted by heightened demand for specialty memory, components and batteries that are not supported by our manufacturing partners. Such supply shortages may affect our ability to manage appropriate supply levels of our products and pricing pressures may negatively affect our gross margins.
In addition, the introduction or announcement of new products or product enhancements may shorten the life cycle of our existing products or reduce demand for our current products, thereby offsetting any benefits of successful product introductions and potentially lead to challenges in managing inventory of existing products. For example, in 2017, the introduction of the HERO6 Black camera at $499, while keeping the price point of the HERO5 Black camera at $399, negatively affected consumer demand for HERO5 Black, and we ultimately reduced the price of HERO5 Black to increase channel sell through rates. The HERO5 Black price adjustment had a cascading effect that resulted in price reductions for HERO5 Session and ultimately HERO6 Black cameras. Reduced product margins resulting from lower price point products may decrease the number of retailers willing to offer and promote our product lineup. Failure to manage and complete product transitions effectively or in a timely manner could harm our brand and lead to, among other things, lower revenue, excess prior generation product inventory, or a deficit of new product inventory and reduced profitability. For example, as a result of reducing the price of our HERO5 Black cameras in December 2017 and HERO6 Black cameras in January 2018, we incurred price protection and marketing development funds charges which resulted in a reduction in our revenue, gross margins and operating profits.
Additionally, our brand and product marketing efforts are critical to stimulating consumer demand. We market our products globally through a range of advertising and promotional programs and campaigns, including social media. If we do not successfully market our products or plan the right promotions for the right products at the right time, the lack of success or increased costs of promotional programs could have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
We depend on sales of our cameras, mounts and accessories for substantially all of our revenue, and any decrease in the sales or change in sales mix of these products could harm our business.
We expect to derive the majority of our revenue from sales of cameras, mounts and accessories for the foreseeable future. A decline in the price or unit demand for these products, whether due to macroeconomic conditions including variable tariff rates, competition or otherwise, or our inability to increase sales of higher price point products, would harm our business and operating results more seriously than it would if we derived significant revenue from a variety of product lines and services. In particular, a decline in the price or unit demand of our HERO camera line or MAX camera, or our inability to increase sales of these products, could materially harm our business and operating results. Further, any delays or issues with our new product launches could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. For example, due to a late stage production delay, we shifted the launch of the GoPro HERO8 Black camera from Q3 2019 to Q4 2019 resulting in a material shift of revenue from Q3 2019 to Q4 2019. This product delay shortened the timeframe for holiday season sales and resulted in overall lower 2019 financial performance compared to our expectations.
While we have developed and released products and services to add to our offerings, we may not be successful in achieving future revenue growth driven by newly released products and services. For example, we promoted GoPro Plus, our subscription service in connection with our HERO8, HERO7 and MAX camera lineup, to allow consumers to auto upload content to the cloud and make edits within the GoPro app editing solution. If all the components of the storytelling solutions do not work together seamlessly or our users do not adopt them, they may not drive camera sales and our operating results could be adversely affected. In addition, we have been and will continue to expend resources to further innovate and deliver editing and sharing software solutions. If the software does not function as expected or users do not adopt our solution, sales of our MAX camera may be negatively affected. We cannot be assured that our investments in the development of software-related products and services will result in either increased revenue or profit. Changes in product mix may harm our financial results. If there is a shift in consumer demand from our higher-priced to lower-priced cameras without a corresponding increase in units sold, our revenues and gross profit could decrease and losses could result.
As a result, our future growth and financial performance may continue to depend heavily on our ability to develop and sell enhanced versions of our cameras, mounts and accessories. If we fail to deliver product enhancements, new releases or new products and services that appeal to consumers, our future financial condition, operating results and cash flows will be materially affected. Product introductions may not always be successful and could be costly to develop and exit if ultimately unsuccessful. For example, we invested significant resources in development, marketing and support for the launch of our Karma drone, which we subsequently determined faced margin challenges and other obstacles, and we exited the aerial business in 2018.
We rely on third-party suppliers, some of which are sole-source suppliers, to provide components for our products which may lead to supply shortages, long lead times for components, and supply changes, any of which could disrupt our supply chain and may increase our costs.
Our ability to meet customer demand depends, in part, on our ability to obtain timely and adequate delivery of components for our products. All of the components that go into the manufacturing of our cameras and accessories are sourced from third-party suppliers.
Some of the key components used to manufacture our products come from a limited or single source of supply, or by a supplier that could potentially become a competitor. Our contract manufacturers generally purchase these components on our behalf from approved suppliers. We are subject to the risk of shortages and long lead times in the supply of these components and the risk that our suppliers discontinue or modify components used in our products. In addition, the lead times associated with certain components are lengthy and preclude rapid changes in quantities and delivery schedules. We have in the past experienced and may in the future experience component shortages, and the availability of these components may be unpredictable.
If we lose access to components from a particular supplier or experience a significant disruption in the supply of products and components from a current supplier, we may be unable to locate alternative suppliers of comparable quality at an acceptable price, or at all, and our business could be materially and adversely affected. In addition, if we experience a significant increase in demand for our products, our suppliers might not have the capacity or elect not to meet our needs as they allocate components to other customers. Developing suitable alternate
sources of supply for these components may be time-consuming, difficult and costly, and we may not be able to source these components on terms that are acceptable to us, or at all, which may adversely affect our ability to meet our development requirements or to fill our orders in a timely or cost-effective manner. Identifying a suitable supplier is an involved process that requires us to become satisfied with the supplier’s quality control, responsiveness and service, financial stability, labor and other ethical practices, and if we seek to source materials from new suppliers, there can be no assurance that we could do so in a manner that does not disrupt the manufacture and sale of our products.
Our reliance on single source, or a small number of suppliers involves a number of additional risks, including risks related to supplier capacity constraints, price increases, timely delivery, component quality, failure of a key supplier to remain in business and adjust to market conditions, delays in, or the inability to execute on, a supplier roadmap for components and technologies; and natural disasters, fire, acts of terrorism or other catastrophic events.
In particular, for our camera designs, we incorporate image processors, sensors, lens, batteries and memory solutions that critically impact the performance of our products. These components have unique performance profiles, and, as a result, it is not commercially practical to support multiple sources for these components for our products. For example, we incorporate the GP1 image signal processor from Socionext, Inc. in MAX as well as our HERO8 and HERO7 Black cameras and rely on Socionext as the primary supplier of our processors. If other suppliers of image processors become more advanced in performance or more competitive in cost, we may be placed at a disadvantage and not be able to continue improving our product performance as quickly or as competitively as planned. We do not currently have alternative suppliers for several key components. In addition, our products also require passive components such as resistors and multi-layer ceramic capacitors which may experience supply shortages and lengthening lead-times within the consumer electronics industry and may impact our supply chain. In the event that any of our key suppliers are unable to supply the components that we need to produce our products to meet anticipated customer demand, our business would be materially and adversely affected.
If we are unable to anticipate consumer preferences and successfully develop desirable products and solutions, we may not be able to maintain or increase our revenue and achieve profitability.
Our success depends on our ability to identify and originate product trends as well as to anticipate, gauge and react to changing consumer demands in a timely manner. All of our products are subject to changing consumer preferences that cannot be predicted with certainty and lead times for our products may make it more difficult for us to respond rapidly to new or changing product or consumer preferences. Additionally, our products are discretionary items for consumers subject to changing preferences. The overall market for consumer electronics is highly competitive and consumers may choose to spend their dollars on products or devices offered by our competitors or other consumer electronics companies instead of on GoPro products, which may adversely affect our sales. If we are unable to introduce appealing new products or novel technologies in a timely manner, or our new products or technologies are not accepted or adopted by consumers, our competitors may increase their market share, which could hurt our competitive position.
Our research and development efforts are complex and require us to incur substantial expenses to support the development of our next generation cameras, editing applications and other products and services. Our research and development expenses were $142.9 million, $167.3 million and $229.3 million for 2019, 2018 and 2017, respectively. We expect that our research and development expenses will continue to be substantial in 2020, and increase compared to 2019 as we develop innovative technologies. While we expect research and development to increase year-over-year, our budgets are constrained in 2020 and may require us to forego investment in certain products or features which might have been successful had we invested in them, and we may not choose the right features, products, or services to update or enhance. Unanticipated problems in developing products could also divert substantial resources, which may impair our ability to develop new products and enhancements of existing products, and could further increase our costs. We may not be able to achieve an acceptable return, if any, on our research and development efforts, and our business may be adversely affected. As we continually seek to enhance our products, we will incur additional costs to incorporate new or revised features. We might not be able to, or determine that it is not in our interests to, raise prices to compensate for any additional costs.
We operate in a highly competitive market and the size and resources of some of our competitors may allow them to compete more effectively than we can. New entrants also enter our category from time-to-time. These market factors could result in a loss of our market share and a decrease in our revenue and profitability.
The market for cameras is highly competitive. Further, competition has intensified as new market entrants and existing competitors have introduced new products and more competitive offerings into our markets. Increased competition, tariffs, and changing consumer preferences may result in pricing pressures, reduced profit margins and may impede our ability to continue to increase the sales of our products or cause us to lose market share, any of which could substantially harm our business and results of operations.
We compete against established, well-known camera manufacturers such as Canon Inc. and Nikon Corporation, as well as large, diversified electronics companies such as Samsung Electronics Co. and Sony Corporation, and specialty companies such as Garmin Ltd., the Ricoh Company, Ltd., Shenzhen Arashi Vision Co., Ltd. and SZ DJI Technology Co., Ltd. Many of our competitors have substantial market share, diversified product lines, well-established supply and distribution systems, strong worldwide brand recognition and greater financial, marketing, research and development and other resources than we do. Additionally, many of our existing and potential competitors enjoy substantial competitive advantages, such as longer operating histories; the capacity to leverage their sales efforts and marketing expenditures across a broader portfolio of products; broader distribution and established relationships with channel partners or vertically integrated business units; access to larger established customer bases; greater resources to make acquisitions; larger intellectual property portfolios; and the ability to bundle competitive offerings with other products and services. Further, new companies may emerge and offer competitive products directly in our category. We are aware that certain companies have developed cameras designed and packaged to appear similar to our products, which may confuse consumers or distract consumers from purchasing GoPro products.
Moreover, smartphones and tablets with photo and video functionality have significantly displaced the market for traditional cameras, and the makers of those devices also have mobile and other content editing applications and storage for content captured with those devices. We continue to focus on the value proposition of the GoPro mobile application by introducing new features and benefits that we believe will enable customers to edit and share their content easily. The GoPro app, GoPro desktop editing solution and the GoPro Plus subscription service may not be as compelling of a solution as those offered by other companies, such as Apple, Adobe or Google, although the GoPro application supports content from other platforms including content from iOS and Android. Manufacturers of smartphones and tablets, such as Apple, Google and Samsung may continue to design their products for use in a range of conditions, including challenging physical environments and waterproof capabilities, or develop products with features similar to ours.
If the e-commerce technology systems that give our consumers the ability to shop with us online do not function effectively, our operating results, as well as our ability to grow our digital e-commerce business globally, could be materially adversely affected.
Our sales through gopro.com represent an increasing percentage of our revenue and we are focused on continuing to accelerate the growth of our e-commerce sales. Revenue from gopro.com represented more than 10% of revenue in the fourth quarter and full year 2019. Additionally, we expect to continue to increase sales through gopro.com as well as further converting portions of our distributors’ business into direct sales. Should we continue to pursue this strategy on a larger scale, it could create significant disruptions to our distribution channel and the associated revenue. As we continue to convert distribution to direct sales, we might not be successful in the transition to increase e-commerce sales or direct to retail sales. Additionally, any reduction in sales by our current distributors, loss of key distributors or decrease in revenue from our distributors could adversely affect our revenue, operating results and financial condition.
Any failure to provide effective, reliable, user-friendly e-commerce platforms that offer a wide assortment of merchandise with rapid delivery options and that continually meet the changing expectations of online shoppers could place us at a competitive disadvantage, result in the loss of e-commerce and other sales, harm our reputation with consumers, have a material adverse impact on the growth of our e-commerce business globally and could have a material adverse impact on our business and results of operations.
Any system interruptions or delays to our e-commerce business could cause potential consumers to fail to purchase our products, and could harm our reputation and brand. The operation of our direct to consumer e-commerce business through gopro.com depends on our ability to maintain an efficient and uninterrupted operation of online order-taking and fulfillment operations. Our e-commerce operations subject us to certain risks that could have an adverse effect on our operating results, including risks related to the technology systems that operate gopro.com and related support systems, such as system failures, viruses, cyberattacks, computer hackers and similar disruptions. If we or our designated third-party contractors are unable to maintain and upgrade gopro.com, or if we encounter system interruptions or delays, our operating results could be adversely affected.
Our gross margins can vary significantly depending on multiple factors, which can result in unanticipated fluctuations in our operating results.
Our gross margins can vary due to consumer demand, competition, product pricing, product lifecycle, product mix, new product introductions, commodity, supply chain and logistics costs, currency exchange rates, trade policy and tariffs, and the complexity and functionality of new product innovations and other factors. For example, our gross margin was 34.6%, 31.5% and 32.6% for 2019, 2018 and 2017, respectively. In particular, if we are not able to introduce new products in a timely manner at the product cost we expect, or if consumer demand for our products is less than we anticipate, or if there are product pricing, marketing and other initiatives by our competitors to which we need to react or that are initiated by us to drive sales that lower our margins, then our overall gross margin will be less than we project. For example, due to a late stage production delay, we shifted the launch of the GoPro HERO8 Black camera from Q3 2019 to Q4 2019, resulting in a material shift of revenue from Q3 2019 to Q4 2019 and a corresponding impact on our gross margin.
As we innovate with new products, we may have lower gross margins that do not deliver a sufficient return on investment. In addition, depending on competition or consumer preferences, we may face higher up-front investments in development to compete or market our products, and increased inventory write-offs. If we are unable to offset these potentially lower margins by enhancing the margins in our product categories, our profitability may be adversely affected.
The impact of these factors on gross margins can create unanticipated fluctuations in our operating results, which may cause volatility in the price of our shares.
We depend on key personnel to operate and grow our business. If we are unable to retain, attract and integrate qualified personnel, our ability to develop and successfully grow and operate our business could be harmed.
We believe that our future success is highly dependent on the contributions of our CEO and our executive officers, as well as our ability to attract and retain highly skilled and experienced research and development, sales and marketing and other personnel in the United States and abroad. All of our employees, including our executive officers, are free to terminate their employment relationship with us at any time, and their knowledge of our business and industry may be difficult to replace.
Since the fourth quarter of 2016, we implemented three global reductions-in-force and restructuring actions to reduce our operating expenses. These changes, and any future changes, in our operations and management team could be disruptive to our operations. Our restructuring actions and any future restructuring actions could have an adverse effect on our business as a result of decreases in employee morale and the failure to meet operational targets due to the loss of employees. If key employees leave, we may not be able to fully integrate new personnel or replicate the prior working relationships, and our operations could suffer.
Qualified individuals are in high demand, and we may incur significant costs to attract and retain them. While we utilize competitive salary, bonus and long-term incentive packages to recruit new employees, many of the companies with which we compete for experienced personnel also have greater resources than we do. Competition for qualified personnel is particularly intense in the San Francisco Bay Area, where our headquarters are located. We have from time to time experienced, and we expect to continue to experience, difficulty in hiring and retaining highly skilled employees with appropriate qualifications. In addition, job candidates and existing employees often consider the value of the equity awards they receive in connection with their employment. Fluctuations in the price of our Class A common stock may make it more difficult or costly to use equity
compensation to motivate, incentivize and retain our employees. For example, during 2019, our closing stock price ranged from a high of $7.55 in the second quarter to a low of $3.38 in the fourth quarter. If we are unable to attract and retain highly skilled personnel, we may not be able to achieve our strategic objectives, and our business, financial condition and operating results could be adversely affected.
If our sales fall below our forecasts, especially during the holiday season, our overall financial condition and results of operations could be adversely affected.
Seasonal consumer shopping patterns significantly affect our business. We have traditionally experienced greater revenue in the fourth quarter of each year due to demand related to the holiday season, and in some years, including 2018, demand associated with the launch of new products heading into the holiday season. Fourth quarter revenue comprised 44%, 33% and 28% of our 2019, 2018 and 2017 revenue, respectively. Given the strong seasonal nature of our sales, appropriate forecasting is critical to our operations. We anticipate that this seasonal impact is likely to continue and any shortfalls in expected fourth quarter revenue, due to macroeconomic conditions, product release patterns, a decline in the effectiveness of our promotional activities, product mix, charges incurred against new products to support promotional activities, pricing pressures, supply chain disruptions, or for any other reason, could cause our annual results of operations to suffer significantly. For example, due to a late stage production delay, our launch timing shifted for our HERO8 Black camera from Q3 2019 to Q4 2019 resulting in a material shift of revenue between Q3 2019 to Q4 2019. This product delay shortened the timeframe for holiday season sales and resulted in overall lower 2019 financial performance compared to our expectations.
In addition, we typically experience lower revenue in the first half of the year. For example, revenue of $535.1 million for the first half of 2019 decreased by $128.2 million, or 19%, compared to revenue of $663.3 million in the last half of 2018. First half revenue comprised 45%, 42% and 44% of our annual 2019, 2018 and 2017 revenue, respectively.
In contrast, a substantial portion of our expenses are personnel-related and include salaries, stock-based compensation, benefits and incentive-based compensation plan expenses, which are not seasonal in nature. Furthermore, our customers may adjust their purchasing habits as a result of external events such as tariff avoidance or tariff impact that could result in a lower predictability of revenue. Accordingly, in the event of revenue shortfalls, we are generally unable to mitigate a negative impact on operating margins in the short term.
Changes to trade agreements, trade policies, tariffs and import/export regulations may have an adverse effect on our business and results of operations.
The United States and other countries in which our products are produced or sold internationally have imposed and may impose additional quotas, duties, tariffs, or other restrictions or regulations, or may adversely adjust prevailing quota, duty, tariff levels, or export or other licensing requirements. Countries impose, modify and remove tariffs and other trade restrictions in response to a diverse array of factors, including global and national economic and political conditions, which make it impossible for us to predict future developments regarding tariffs and other trade restrictions. Trade restrictions, including tariffs, quotas, embargoes, safeguards, and customs restrictions, could increase the cost or reduce the supply of products available to us or may require us to modify our supply chain organization or other current business practices, any of which could harm our business, financial condition and results of operations. We are dependent on international trade agreements and regulations. If the United States were to withdraw from or materially modify certain international trade agreements, our business and operating results could be materially and adversely affected.
We do not have internal manufacturing capabilities and rely on several contract manufacturers, including component vendors, located in China and Mexico to manufacture our products. Our contract manufacturer locations expose us to risks associated with doing business globally, including risks related to changes in tariffs or other export and import restrictions, and increased security costs. Additionally, the current United States administration continues to signal that it may continue to alter global trade agreements and terms. For example, the United States imposed additional tariffs on imports from China and continues to potentially impose other restrictions on exports from China to the United States. The Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) recently identified certain Chinese imported goods for additional tariffs to address China’s trade policies and practices. Any announcement by the USTR to impose tariffs on GoPro cameras could have a material
adverse effect on our United States bound production, business and results of our United States operations. If these duties are imposed on our cameras, we may be required to raise our prices, which may result in the loss of customers and harm our business and results of operations. Sales of our products in China are material to our business and represent a significant portion of our revenue. This revenue stream from China is at risk in the event China imposes retaliatory tariffs impacting in-bound sales of our products or imposes any other export restrictions on our products.
Beginning in the second half of 2019, we shifted most of our United States bound camera production from China to Mexico. Shifting United States bound camera production to Mexico may not be successful due to the timing of implementing changes such as recreating a new supply chain and identifying substitute components in new manufacturing locations, and we may not be successful in reducing our costs, or off-setting the impact of tariffs due to other potential tariffs. Additionally, we may not succeed at lowering potential tariff rates on United States bound production manufactured in Mexico due to the ongoing negotiations and congressional confirmation of the United States Mexico Canada Agreement and compliance with that Agreement. We continue to monitor manufacturing capabilities outside of China to mitigate risks of additional tariffs, duties or other restrictions on our products and may decide to transition more manufacturing outside of China.
We face substantial risks related to inventory, purchase commitments and long-lived assets, and we could incur material charges related to these items that adversely affect our operating results.
To ensure adequate inventory supply and meet the demands of our retailers and distributors, we must forecast inventory needs and place orders with our contract manufacturers and component suppliers based on our estimates of future demand for particular products as well as accurately track the level of product inventory in the channel to ensure we are not in an over or under supply situation. To the extent we discontinue the manufacturing and sales of any products or services, we must manage the inventory liquidation, supplier commitments and customer expectations. For example, in 2018, we exited the aerial business, but still had inventory of our Karma drone, which we sold throughout 2018. Also, in the fourth quarter of 2017, we recorded product charges of $5 million for excess purchase order commitments, excess inventory, and obsolete tooling, relating to the end-of-life of our former entry-level HERO product, slower than anticipated overall demand, and for excess inventory relating to the end-of-life of our REMO accessory.
No assurance can be given that we will not incur additional charges in future periods related to our inventory management or that we will not underestimate or overestimate forecasted sales in a future period. Our ability to accurately forecast demand for our products is affected by many factors, including product introductions by us and our competitors, channel inventory levels, unanticipated changes in general market demand, macroeconomic conditions and consumer confidence. If we do not accurately forecast customer demand for our products, we may in future periods be unable to meet consumer, retailer or distributor demand for our products, or may be required to incur higher costs to secure the necessary production capacity and components, and our business and operating results could be adversely affected.
If we fail to manage our operating expenses effectively, our financial performance may suffer.
Our success will depend in part upon our ability to manage our operating expenses, including but not limited to our cash management, effectively. We incurred significant operating losses in 2018 and 2017 and, as of December 31, 2019, we had an accumulated deficit of $583.7 million. Beginning in the fourth quarter of 2016 through the first quarter of 2018, we implemented three global reductions-in-force and other restructuring actions to reduce our operating expenses. Although we plan to seek to operate efficiently and to manage our costs effectively, we may not realize the cost savings expected from these actions.
We will need to continue to improve our operational, financial and management controls, reporting processes and procedures, and financial and business information systems. We are also investing in areas we believe will grow revenue and our operating expenses might increase as a result of these investments. If we are unable to operate efficiently and manage our costs, we may continue to incur significant losses in the future and may not be able to maintain or achieve profitability.
In the future, in response to unfavorable market conditions or consumer demand, we may again need to strategically realign our resources, adjust our product line and/or enact price reductions in order to stimulate demand, and implement additional restructurings and workforce reductions. For example, in the fourth quarter of
2017 and first quarter of 2018, we reduced the pricing on our entire camera product line to increase consumer demand, closed our aerial products business due to unfavorable market conditions, and implemented a workforce reduction. Any such actions may result in the recording of charges including inventory-related write-offs, or other restructuring costs. Additionally, our estimates with respect to the useful life or ultimate recoverability of our assets, including purchased intangible assets and tooling, could also change and result in impairment charges.
We may not be able to secure additional financing on favorable terms, or at all, to meet our future capital needs.
In the future, we may require additional capital to respond to business opportunities, challenges, acquisitions or unforeseen circumstances and may determine to engage in equity or debt financings or enter into credit facilities for other reasons. We may not be able to timely secure additional financing on favorable terms, or at all. For example, our current credit facility contains restrictive covenants relating to our capital raising activities and other financial and operational matters, and any debt financing obtained by us in the future could involve further restrictive covenants, which may make it more difficult for us to obtain additional capital and to pursue business opportunities, including potential acquisitions. Further, even if we are able to obtain additional financing, we may be required to use such proceeds to repay a portion of our debt. If we raise additional funds through the issuance of equity or convertible debt or other equity-linked securities, our existing stockholders could suffer significant dilution. If we are unable to obtain adequate financing under our credit facility, or alternative sources, when we require it, our ability to grow or support our business and to respond to business challenges could be significantly limited. In the event additional financing is required from outside sources, we may not be able to raise it on terms acceptable to us or at all.
Data protection breaches and cyberattacks could disrupt our products, services, internal operations, or information technology systems, and any such disruption could reduce our expected revenue, increase our expenses, damage our reputation, and cause our stock price to decline significantly.
Our products, services and operating systems may contain unknown security vulnerabilities. For example, the firmware and software that are installed on our products may be susceptible to hacking or misuse. In addition, we offer a comprehensive online cloud management service, GoPro Plus, which can be paired with our cameras. If malicious actors compromise the GoPro Plus service, or if customer confidential information stored in the Plus service is accessed without authorization, our business will be harmed.
In operating GoPro Plus, we rely on third-party providers for a number of critical aspects for GoPro Plus services, including web hosting services, billing and payment processing and consequently, we do not maintain direct control over the security or stability of the associated systems. If we or any of our third-party providers are unable to successfully prevent breaches of security relating to our operating systems, products, services, or user private information, including user videos and user personal identification information, or if third-party systems which we rely upon to operate fail for other reasons, we may need to spend increasing amounts of time and effort in this area. As a result, we could incur substantial expenses, our brand and reputation could suffer and our business, results of operations and financial condition could be materially adversely affected.
Interruptions with the cloud-based systems that we use in our operations, provided by an affiliate of Amazon.com, Inc. (Amazon), may materially adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition.
We host the GoPro app, GoPro Plus, GoPro Awards, our website account sign up, and login and firmware upgrades for our cameras using Amazon Web Services (AWS) data centers, a provider of cloud infrastructure services, and may in the future use other third-party cloud-based systems in our operations. Accordingly, our operations depend on protecting the virtual cloud infrastructure hosted in AWS by maintaining its configuration, architecture, features, and interconnection specifications, as well as the information stored in these virtual data centers and which third-party internet service providers transmit. Any incident affecting their infrastructure that may be caused by human error, fire, flood, severe storm, earthquake, or other natural disasters, cyberattacks, terrorist or other attacks, and other similar events beyond our control could negatively affect the GoPro Plus service. A prolonged AWS service disruption affecting our GoPro Plus service for any of the foregoing reasons would negatively impact our ability to serve our consumers and could damage our reputation with current and potential consumers, expose us to liability, cause us to lose consumers, or otherwise harm our business. We may
also incur significant costs for using alternative equipment or taking other actions in preparation for, or in reaction to, events that damage the AWS services we use. Further, if we were to make updates to GoPro Plus that were not compatible with the configuration, architecture, features, and interconnection specifications of the third-party platform, our service could be disrupted.
In the event that our AWS service agreements are terminated, or there is a lapse of service, elimination of AWS services or features that we use, interruption of internet service provider connectivity, or damage to such facilities, we could experience interruptions in access to GoPro Plus as well as significant delays and additional expense in arranging or creating new facilities and services and/or re-architecting our solutions for deployment on a different cloud infrastructure service provider, which could materially adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition.
The reputation of our services may be damaged, and we may face significant direct or indirect costs, decreased revenue and operating margins if our services contain significant defects or fail to perform as intended.
The GoPro Plus and GoPro app platforms are complex and may not always perform as intended due to outages of our systems or defects affecting our services. System outages could be disruptive to our business and damage the reputation of our services and result in potential loss of revenue. Significant defects affecting our services may be found following the introduction of new software or enhancements to existing software or in software implementations in varied information technology environments. Internal quality assurance testing and end-user testing may reveal service performance issues or desirable feature enhancements that could lead us to reallocate service development resources or postpone the release of new versions of our software. The reallocation of resources or any postponement could cause delays in the development and release of future enhancements to our currently available software, damage the reputation of our services in the marketplace and result in potential loss of revenue. Although we attempt to resolve all errors that we believe would be considered serious by our partners and customers, the software powering our services is not error-free. Undetected errors or performance problems may be discovered in the future, and known errors that we consider minor may be considered serious by our channel partners and consumers. System disruptions and defects in our services could result in lost revenue, delays in customer deployment, or legal claims and could be detrimental to our reputation.
An economic downturn or economic uncertainty in our key United States and international markets, as well as fluctuations in currency exchange rates may adversely affect consumer discretionary spending and demand for our products.
Factors affecting the level of consumer spending include general market conditions, macroeconomic conditions, tax rates, fluctuations in foreign exchange rates and interest rates, and other factors such as consumer confidence, the availability and cost of consumer credit, and levels of unemployment. Additionally, Brexit has created economic and political uncertainty, including volatility in global financial markets and the value of foreign currencies. The impact of Brexit depends on the terms of the United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the European Union and such impact may not be fully realized for several years or more. The majority of our sales occur in U.S. dollars and an increase in the value of the dollar against the Euro and other currencies could increase the real cost to consumers of our products in those markets outside the United States. For example, in countries where we sell in local currency, we are subject to exchange rate fluctuations that create inherent risks for us and may cause us to adjust pricing which may make our products more or less favorable to the consumer. If global economic conditions are volatile or if economic conditions deteriorate, consumers may delay or reduce purchases of our products resulting in consumer demand for our products that may not reach our sales targets. Strengthening of the U.S. dollar and/or weakness in the economies of Euro zone countries could adversely impact sales of our products in the European region, which would have a material negative impact on our future operating results. Our sensitivity to economic cycles and any related fluctuation in consumer demand could adversely affect our business, financial condition and operating results.
We are subject to governmental export and import controls and economic sanctions laws that could subject us to liability and impair our ability to compete in international markets.
The United States and various foreign governments have imposed controls, export license requirements and restrictions on the import or export of some technologies. Our products are subject to United States export
controls, and exports of our products must be made in compliance with various economic and trade sanctions laws. Furthermore, United States export control laws and economic sanctions prohibit the provision of products and services to countries, governments and persons targeted by United States sanctions. Even though we take precautions to prevent our products from being provided to targets of United States sanctions, our products, including our firmware updates, could be provided to those targets or provided by our customers. Any such provision could have negative consequences, including government investigations, penalties and reputational harm. Our failure to obtain required import or export approval for our products could harm our international and domestic sales and adversely affect our revenue.
We could be subject to future enforcement action with respect to compliance with governmental export and import controls and economic sanctions laws that result in penalties, costs, and restrictions on export privileges that could have a material effect on our business and operating results.
Our international business operations account for a significant portion of our revenue and operating expenses and are subject to challenges and risks.
Revenue from outside the United States comprised 64%, 65% and 58% of our revenue in 2019, 2018and 2017, respectively, and we expect international revenue to continue to be significant in the future. Further, we currently have foreign operations in Australia, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Netherlands, Philippines, Romania, United Kingdom and a number of other countries in Europe and Asia. Operating in foreign countries requires significant resources and considerable management attention, and we may enter new geographic markets where we have limited or no experience in marketing, selling, and deploying our products. International expansion has required and will continue to require us to invest significant funds and other resources and we cannot be assured our efforts will be successful. International sales and operations may be subject to risks such as:
difficulties in staffing and managing foreign operations;
burdens of complying with a wide variety of laws and regulations, including environmental, packaging and labeling;
adverse tax effects and foreign exchange controls making it difficult to repatriate earnings and cash;
changes to the taxation of undistributed foreign earnings;
the effect of foreign currency exchange rates and interest rates, including any fluctuations caused by uncertainties relating to the U.K. leaving the European Union (“Brexit”);
political, economic instability, or social unrest in a specific country or region in which we operate, including, for example, the effects of “Brexit,” which could have an adverse impact on our operations in that location;
organized crime activity, including those in Mexico;
terrorist activities and natural disasters;
quarantines or other disruptions to our operations resulting from future pandemics or other widespread public health problems;
trade restrictions;
differing employment practices and laws and labor disruptions;
the imposition of government controls;
lesser degrees of intellectual property protection;
tariffs and customs duties and the classifications of our goods by applicable governmental bodies;
a legal system subject to undue influence or corruption; and
a business culture in which illegal sales practices may be prevalent.
The occurrence of any of these risks could negatively affect our international business and consequently our business, operating results and financial condition.
Security breaches and other disruptions including cyberattacks could expose us to liability, damage our brand and reputation, compromise our ability to conduct business, require use to incur significant costs or otherwise adversely affect our financial results.
In the ordinary course of our business, we electronically maintain sensitive data, including intellectual property, our proprietary business information and that of our customers and suppliers, and some personally identifiable information of our customers and employees, in our facilities and on our networks. Through GoPro Plus, users may store video and image files, including any telemetry or metadata that the user has chosen to associate with those files in the cloud. In our e-commerce services, we process, store and transmit consumer data. We also collect user data through certain marketing activities. For all of the foregoing internal and customer or consumer facing data and content collection, we collect and store that information in our or our third-party providers’ electronic systems. These systems may be targets of attacks, such as viruses, malware or phishing attempts by cyber criminals or other wrongdoers seeking to steal our users’ content or data, or our customer’s information for financial gain or to harm our business operations or reputation.
Any security breach, unauthorized access or usage, virus or similar breach or disruption of our systems or software could result in the loss of confidential information, costly investigations, remediation efforts and costly notification to affected consumers. If such content were accessed by unauthorized third parties or deleted inadvertently by us or third parties, our brand and reputation could be adversely affected. Cyberattacks could also adversely affect our operating results, consume internal resources, and result in litigation or potential liability for us and otherwise harm our business. Further, we are subject to general consumer regulations and laws, as well as regulations and laws specifically related to security and privacy of consumer data or content. In the event of an incident affecting the security of consumer data or content, regulators may open an investigation or pursue fines or penalties for non-compliance with these laws, or private plaintiffs may sue us, resulting in additional costs and reputational harm to our business.
Any significant cybersecurity incidents or disruption of our information systems, and our reliance on Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) technologies from third parties, could adversely affect our business operations and financial results.
We are increasingly dependent on information systems to process transactions, manage our supply chain and inventory, ship goods on a timely basis, maintain cost-efficient operations, complete timely and accurate financial reporting, operate gopro.com and respond to customer inquiries.
Our information systems and those of third parties we use in our operations are vulnerable to cybersecurity risk, including cyberattacks such as distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks, computer viruses, physical or electronic break-ins that damage operating systems, and similar disruptions. Additionally, these systems periodically experience directed attacks intended to lead to interruptions and delays in our operations as well as loss, misuse or theft of data. We have implemented physical, technical and administrative safeguards to protect our systems. To date, unauthorized users have not had a material effect on our systems; however, there can be no assurance that attacks will not be successful in the future. In addition, our information systems must be constantly updated, patched and upgraded to protect against known vulnerabilities and optimize performance. Material disruptions or slowdown of our systems, including a disruption or slowdown could occur if we are unable to successfully update, patch and upgrade our systems.
System disruptions, failures and slowdowns, whether caused by cyberattacks, update failures or other causes, could affect our financial systems and operations. This could cause delays in our supply chain or cause information, including data related to customer orders, to be lost or delayed which could result in delays in the delivery of merchandise to our stores and customers or lost sales, especially if the disruption or slowdown occurred during our seasonally strong fourth quarter. Any of these events could reduce demand for our products, impair our ability to complete sales through our e-commerce channels and cause our revenue to decline. If changes in technology cause our information systems to become obsolete, or if our information systems are inadequate to handle our growth, we could lose customers or our business and operating results could be adversely affected.
The information systems used by our third-party service providers are vulnerable to these risks as well. In particular, we are heavily reliant on SaaS enterprise resource planning systems to conduct our order and
inventory management, e-commerce and financial transactions and reporting. In addition, we utilize third-party cloud computing services in connection with our business operations. Problems faced by us or our third-party hosting/cloud computing providers, or content delivery network providers, including technological or business-related disruptions, as well as cybersecurity threats, could adversely affect our business and operating results, our ability to accurately report our financial results, as well as the experience of our consumers, which in turn could adversely affect our business and operating results.
As we expand our operations, we expect to utilize additional systems and service providers that may also be essential to managing our business. Our ability to manage our business would suffer if one or more of our providers suffer an interruption in their business, or experience delays, disruptions or quality control problems in their operations, or we have to change or add systems and services. While we conduct reasonable diligence on our service providers, we may not always be able to control the quality of the systems and services we receive from these providers, which could impair our ability to maintain appropriate internal control over financial reporting and complete timely and accurate financial reporting, and may affect our business, operating results and financial condition.
We are subject to governmental regulation and other legal obligations, particularly related to privacy, data protection and information security, and our actual or perceived failure to comply with such obligations could adversely affect our business and operating results.
Personal privacy, data protection and information security are significant issues in the United States and the other jurisdictions where we offer our products and services. The regulatory framework for privacy and security issues worldwide is rapidly evolving and is likely to remain uncertain for the foreseeable future. Our handling of data is subject to a variety of laws and regulations, including regulation by various government agencies, including the United States Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and various state, local and foreign bodies and agencies.
The United States federal and various state and foreign governments have adopted or proposed limitations on the collection, distribution, use and storage of personal information of individuals, including end-customers and employees. In the United States, the FTC and many state attorneys general are applying federal and state consumer protection laws to the online collection, use and dissemination of data. Additionally, many foreign countries and governmental bodies, including in Australia, the European Union, India, Japan and numerous other jurisdictions in which we operate or conduct our business, have laws and regulations concerning the collection and use of personal information obtained from their residents or by businesses operating within their jurisdiction. These laws and regulations often are more restrictive than those in the United States. Such laws and regulations may require companies to implement new privacy and security policies, permit individuals to access, correct and delete personal information stored or maintained by such companies, inform individuals of security breaches that affect their personal information, and, in some cases, obtain individuals’ consent to use personal information for certain purposes.
We also expect that there will continue to be new proposed laws, regulations and industry standards concerning privacy, data protection and information security in the United States, the European Union and other jurisdictions, and we cannot yet determine the impact of such future laws, regulations and standards may have on our business. We expect that existing laws, regulations and standards may be interpreted differently in the future. For example, in January 2020, the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) took effect, which provides new data privacy rights for consumers in California and new operational requirements for companies doing business in California. Compliance with the new obligations imposed by the CCPA depends in part on how particular regulators interpret and apply them. If we fail to comply with the CCPA or if regulators assert that we have failed to comply with the CCPA, we may be subject to certain fines or other penalties. Also, there remains significant uncertainty surrounding the regulatory framework for the future of personal data transfers from the European Union to the United States with regulations such as the recently adopted General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) which imposes more stringent EU data protection requirements, provides an enforcement authority, and imposes large penalties for noncompliance. Compliance with the new obligations imposed by the GDPR depends in part on how particular regulators interpret and apply them. If we fail to comply with the GDPR or if regulators assert that we have failed to comply with the GDPR, we may be subject to fines of up to 4% of our worldwide annual revenue. Future laws, regulations, standards and other obligations, including the adoption of the GDPR and the CCPA, as well as changes in the interpretation of existing laws, regulations, standards and other
obligations could impair our ability to collect, use or disclose information relating to individuals, which could decrease demand for our products, require us to restrict our business operations, increase our costs and impair our ability to maintain and grow our customer base and increase our revenue.
Although we are working to comply with those federal, state and foreign laws and regulations, industry standards, contractual obligations and other legal obligations that apply to us, those laws, regulations, standards and obligations are evolving and may be modified, interpreted and applied in an inconsistent manner from one jurisdiction to another, and may conflict with one another, other requirements or legal obligations, our practices or the features of our products. As such, we cannot assure ongoing compliance with all such laws or regulations, industry standards, contractual obligations and other legal obligations. Any failure or perceived failure by us to comply with federal, state or foreign laws or regulations, industry standards, contractual obligations or other legal obligations, or any actual or suspected security incident, whether or not resulting in unauthorized access to, or acquisition, release or transfer of personal information or other data, may result in governmental enforcement actions and prosecutions, private litigation, fines and penalties or adverse publicity and could cause our customers to lose trust in us, which could have an adverse effect on our reputation and business. Any inability to adequately address privacy and security concerns, even if unfounded, or comply with applicable laws, regulations, policies, industry standards, contractual obligations or other legal obligations could result in additional cost and liability to us, damage our reputation, inhibit sales, and adversely affect our business and operating results.
We may grow our business in part through acquisitions, joint ventures, investments and partnerships, which could require significant management attention, disrupt our business, dilute stockholder value and adversely affect our operating results.
We have completed several acquisitions and may evaluate additional acquisitions of, or strategic investments in, other companies, products or technologies that we believe are complementary to our business. For example, in the first half of 2016, we acquired two mobile editing application companies for aggregate cash consideration of approximately $104 million. We also may enter into relationships with other businesses in order to expand the distribution of our product offerings, which could involve joint ventures, strategic alliances and partnerships. Negotiating these transactions can be time-consuming, difficult and expensive, and our ability to close these transactions may be subject to third-party or government approvals, which are beyond our control. Consequently, we can make no assurance that these transactions, once undertaken and announced, will close.
We may not be able to find suitable acquisition candidates and we may not be able to complete acquisitions on favorable terms, if at all. If we do complete acquisitions, we may not ultimately strengthen our competitive position or achieve our goals, and any acquisitions we complete could be viewed negatively by users or investors. In addition, if we encounter difficulties assimilating or integrating the businesses, technologies, products, personnel, or operations of acquired companies, particularly if the key personnel of the acquired business choose not to work for us, or we have difficulty retaining the customers of any acquired business, the revenue and operating results of the combined company could be adversely affected. Acquisitions may disrupt our ongoing operations, divert management from their primary responsibilities, subject us to additional liabilities, increase our expenses and adversely affect our business, financial condition, operating results and cash flows. In addition, our original estimates and assumptions used in assessing any transaction may be inaccurate, including estimates of accounting charges. We have recorded significant goodwill and intangible assets in connection with our acquisitions, and in the future, if our acquisitions do not yield expected revenue, we may be required to take material impairment charges that could adversely affect our results of operations.
We may have to pay cash, incur debt or issue equity securities to enter into any such acquisition, joint venture, strategic alliances or partnership, which could affect our financial condition or the value of our capital stock. The sale of equity to finance any such transaction could result in dilution to our stockholders. If we incur debt it would result in increased fixed obligations and could also subject us to covenants or other restrictions, or require the consent of the lenders under our credit agreements, that would impede our ability to manage our operations. In addition, our future operating results may be affected by performance earnouts or contingent payments. For example, for our 2016 acquisitions, deferred cash and stock compensation was payable to certain continuing employees subject to meeting specified future employment conditions. Furthermore, acquisitions may require large one-time charges and can result in increased debt or contingent liabilities, adverse tax consequences,
additional stock-based compensation expense and the recording and subsequent amortization or impairments of amounts related to certain purchased intangible assets, any of which could negatively affect our future results of operations. We cannot assure investors that the anticipated benefits of any acquisition or investment will be realized.
Our success depends on our ability to maintain the value and reputation of our brand.
Our success depends on the value and reputation of our brand, including our primary trademarks “GOPRO,” “HERO,” and the GoPro logos. The GoPro brand is integral to the growth of our business and expansion into new markets. Maintaining, promoting and positioning our brand will largely depend on the success of our marketing and merchandising efforts, our ability to provide consistent, high quality products and services, and our consumers’ satisfaction with the technical support and software updates we provide. Failure to grow and maintain our brand or negative publicity related to our products, our consumers’ user-generated content, the athletes we sponsor, the celebrities we are associated with, or the labor policies of any of our suppliers or manufacturers could adversely affect our brand, business and operating results. Maintaining and enhancing our brand also requires substantial financial investments, although there is no guarantee that these investments will increase sales of our products or positively affect our operating results.
If we do not effectively maintain and further develop our sales channels, including developing and supporting our retail sales channel and distributors, our business could be harmed.
We depend upon effective sales channels, including direct to consumer business through gopro.com, to reach the consumers who are the ultimate purchasers of our products. In the United States, we primarily sell our products directly through a mix of retail channels, including big box, mid-market, specialty retailers, and gopro.com, and we reach certain United States markets through distributors. In international markets, we primarily sell through distributors who in turn sell to local retailers; however, we also have direct sales relationships with certain customers and sell directly to consumers through gopro.com.
We depend on retailers to provide adequate and attractive space for our products and POP displays in their stores and acquiesce to our policies. We further depend on our retailers to employ, educate and motivate their sales personnel to effectively sell our products. If our retailers do not adequately display our products, choose to reduce the space for our products and POP displays in their stores or locate them in less than premium positioning, or choose not to carry some or all of our products or promote competitors’ products over ours or do not effectively explain to customers the advantages of our products, our sales could decrease and our business could be harmed. If our retailers do not acquiesce to our policies, we may refuse to ship our products and our sales could decrease, and our business could be harmed. Similarly, our business could be adversely affected if any of our large retail customers were to experience financial difficulties or change the focus of their businesses in a way that deemphasized the sale of our products. We also continue to invest in providing new retailers with POP displays and expanding the footprint of our POP displays in existing stores, and there can be no assurance that this investment will lead to increased revenue.
Our distributors generally offer products from several different manufacturers. Accordingly, we are at risk that these distributors may give higher priority to selling other companies’ products. We have consolidated our distributor channels in certain regions, and if we were to lose the services of a distributor, we might need to find another distributor in that area and there can be no assurance of our ability to do so in a timely manner or on favorable terms. Further, our distributors build inventory in anticipation of future sales, and if such sales do not occur as rapidly as they anticipate, our distributors will decrease the size of their future product orders. We are also subject to the risks of our distributors encountering financial difficulties, which could impede their effectiveness and also expose us to financial risk if they are unable to pay for the products they purchase from us. Additionally, our international distributors buy from us in U.S. dollars and generally sell to retailers in local currency so significant currency fluctuations could affect their profitability, and in turn, affect their ability to buy future products from us. For example, the Brexit referendum vote in the U.K. caused significant short-term volatility in global stock markets as well as currency exchange rate fluctuations.
We have converted portions of our distributors’ business into direct sales, and increased sales through gopro.com, and if we were to do this on a larger scale, it could create significant disruptions to our distribution channel and the associated revenue. As we continue to convert distribution to direct sales, we might not be
successful in that transition. Additionally, any reduction in sales by our current distributors, loss of key distributors or decrease in revenue from our distributors could adversely affect our revenue, operating results and financial condition.
A small number of retailers and distributors account for a substantial portion of our revenue, and if our relationships with any of these retailers or distributors were to be terminated or the level of business with them significantly reduced, our business could be harmed.
Our ten largest customers, measured by the revenue we derive from them, accounted for 42%of our revenue for 2019 and 48% of our revenue for 2018 and 2017. One retailer accounted for 11%, 13% and 15% of our revenue for 2019, 2018 and 2017, respectively. The loss of a small number of our large customers, or the reduction in business with one or more of our large customers, could have a significant adverse effect on our operating results. In addition, we may choose to temporarily or permanently stop shipping product to customers who do not follow the policies and guidelines in our sales agreements, which could have a material negative effect on our revenues and operating results. Our sales agreements with these large customers do not require them to purchase any meaningful amount of our products annually and we grant limited rights to return product to some of these large customers.
If we encounter problems with our distribution system, our ability to deliver our products to the market and to meet customer expectations could be harmed.
We rely on third-party distribution facilities and logistics operators for substantially all of our product distribution to distributors and directly to retailers. Our distribution facilities include computer controlled and automated equipment, which means their operations may be vulnerable to computer viruses or other security risks, the proper operation of software and hardware, electronic or power interruptions or other system failures. Further, because substantially all of our products are distributed from only a few locations and by a small number of companies, our operations could be interrupted by labor difficulties, extreme or severe weather conditions, cyber-attacks, or floods, fires or other natural disasters near our distribution centers, or port shutdowns or other transportation-related interruptions, including security breaches, along our distribution routes. Additionally, we use one primary supplier for the third-party distribution and if this supplier were to experience financial difficulties, cyber-attacks, or other types of interruption it could adversely affect our business.
We may be subject to warranty claims that could result in significant direct or indirect costs, or we could experience greater returns from retailers than expected, which could harm our business and operating results.
We generally provide a 12-month warranty on all of our cameras, except in the European Union, or EU, where we provide a two-year warranty on all of our cameras. For certain mounts and accessories, where permitted, we provide a lifetime warranty. The occurrence of any material defects in our products could make us liable for damages and warranty claims in excess of our current reserves. In addition, we could incur significant costs to correct any defects, warranty claims or other problems, including costs related to product recalls. Any negative publicity related to the perceived quality and safety of our products could affect our brand image, decrease retailer, distributor and consumer confidence and demand, and adversely affect our operating results and financial condition. Also, while our warranty is limited to repairs and returns, warranty claims may result in litigation, the occurrence of which could adversely affect our business and operating results. Based on our historical experience with our camera products, we have an established methodology for estimating warranty liabilities with respect to cameras and accessories.
We offer GoPro Plus, our subscription offering, which has a camera replacement benefit as part of the monthly or yearly subscription, which is available in the United States and internationally. Accidental damage coverage, extended warranties and other camera replacement benefits are regulated in the United States on a state level and are treated differently by each state. Additionally, outside the United States, regulations for camera replacement benefits vary from country to country. Changes in interpretation of the insurance regulations or other laws and regulations concerning extended warranties, accidental damage coverage or camera replacement benefits on a federal, state, local or international level may cause us to incur costs or have additional regulatory requirements to meet in the future in order to continue to offer GoPro Plus in compliance with any similar laws adopted in other jurisdictions. Our failure to comply with past, present and future similar laws could result in
reduced sales of our products, reputational damage, penalties and other sanctions, which could harm our business and financial condition.
Consumers may be injured while engaging in activities with our products, and we may be exposed to claims, or regulations could be imposed, which could adversely affect our brand, operating results and financial condition.
Consumers use our cameras, drones and their associated mounts and accessories to self-capture their participation in a wide variety of physical activities, including extreme sports, which in many cases carry the risk of significant injury or death. Consumers may also use our drones for a wide range of flight activity, including aerial data collection, videography and photography. We may be subject to claims that users have been injured or harmed by or while using our products, including false claims or erroneous reports relating to safety, security or privacy issues, or that personal property has been damaged as a result of use of our drone. Although we maintain insurance to help protect us from the risk of such claims, such insurance may not be sufficient or may not apply to all situations. Similarly, proprietors of establishments at which consumers engage in challenging physical activities could seek to ban the use of our products in their facilities to limit their own liability. In addition, if lawmakers or governmental agencies were to determine that the use of our products increased the risk of injury or harm to all or a subset of our users or should otherwise be restricted to protect consumers, they may pass laws or adopt regulations that limit the use of our products or increase our liability associated with the use of our products. Any of these events could adversely affect our brand, operating results and financial condition.
Our intellectual property and proprietary rights may not adequately protect our products and services, and our business may suffer if it is alleged or determined that our technology, products, or another aspect of our business infringes third-party intellectual property or if third parties infringe our rights.
We own patents, trademarks, copyrights, trade secrets, and other intellectual property (collectively “intellectual property”) related to aspects of our products, software, services and designs. Our commercial success may depend in part on our ability to obtain, maintain and protect these rights in the United States and abroad.
We regularly file patent applications to protect innovations arising from our research, development and design as we deem appropriate. We may fail to apply for patents on important products, services, technologies or designs in a timely fashion, or at all. We may not have sufficient intellectual property rights in all countries where unauthorized third-party copying or use of our proprietary technology occurs and the scope of our intellectual property might be more limited in certain countries. Our existing and future patents may not be sufficient to protect our products, services, technologies or designs and/or may not prevent others from developing competing products, services, technologies or designs. We cannot predict the validity and enforceability of our patents and other intellectual property with certainty.
We have registered, and applied to register, certain of our trademarks in several jurisdictions worldwide. In some of those jurisdictions, third-party filings exist for the same, similar or otherwise related products or services, which could block the registration of our marks. Even if we are able to register our marks, competitors may adopt or file similar marks to ours, seek to cancel our trademark registrations, register domain names that mimic or incorporate our marks, or otherwise infringe upon or harm our trademark rights. Although we police our trademark rights carefully, there can be no assurance that we are aware of all third-party uses or that we will prevail in enforcing our rights in all such instances. Any of these negative outcomes could affect the strength, value and effectiveness of our brand, as well as our ability to market our products. We have also registered domain names for websites, or URLs, that we use in our business, such as gopro.com, as well as social media handles. If we are unable to protect our domain names or social media handles, our brand, business, and operating results could be adversely affected. Domain names or social media handles similar to ours have already been registered in the United States and elsewhere, and we may not be able to prevent third parties from acquiring and using domain names or social media handles that infringe, are similar to, or otherwise decrease the value of, our trademarks. In addition, we might not be able to, or may choose not to, acquire or maintain trademark registrations, domain names, social media handles or other related rights in certain jurisdictions.
Litigation may be necessary to enforce our intellectual property rights. Initiating infringement proceedings against third parties can be expensive, take significant time, and divert management’s attention from other business concerns. We may not prevail in litigation to enforce our intellectual property against unauthorized use.
Third parties, including competitors and non-practicing entities, have brought intellectual property infringement claims against us, including the matter described in Item 3Legal Proceedings. We expect to continue to receive such intellectual property claims in the future. While we will defend ourselves vigorously against any such existing and future legal proceedings, we may not prevail against all such allegations. We may seek licenses from third parties where appropriate, but they could refuse to grant us a license or demand commercially unreasonable terms. Further, an adverse ruling in an intellectual property infringement proceeding could force us to suspend or permanently cease the production or sale of products/services, face a temporary or permanent injunction, redesign our products/services, rebrand our products/services, pay significant settlement costs, pay third-party license fees or damage awards or give up some of our intellectual property. The occurrence of any of these events may materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition, operating results or cash flows.
If we are unable to maintain or acquire rights to include intellectual property owned by others in the content distributed by us, our marketing, sales or future business strategy could be affected or we could be subject to lawsuits relating to our use of this content.
The distribution of GoPro content helps to market our brand and our products. If we cannot continue to acquire rights to distribute user-generated content or acquire rights to use and distribute music, athlete and celebrity names and likenesses or other content for our original productions or third-party entertainment distribution channels or for our software products, our marketing efforts could be diminished, our sales could be harmed and our future content strategy could be adversely affected. In addition, third-party content providers or owners may allege that we have violated their intellectual property rights. If we are unable to obtain sufficient rights, successfully defend our use of or otherwise alter our business practices on a timely basis in response to claims of infringement, misappropriation, misuse or other violation of third-party intellectual property rights, our business may be adversely affected. As a user and distributor of content, we face potential liability for rights of publicity and privacy, as well as copyright, or trademark infringement or other claims based on the nature and content of materials that we distribute. If we are found to violate such third-party rights, then our business may suffer.
If we encounter issues with our manufacturers or suppliers, our business, brand, and results of operations could be harmed and we could lose sales.
We do not have internal manufacturing capabilities and rely on several contract manufacturers, located primarily in China and Mexico to manufacture our products. We cannot be certain that we will not experience operational difficulties with our manufacturers, including reductions in the availability of production capacity, errors in complying with product specifications, insufficient quality control, failures to meet production deadlines, increases in manufacturing costs and increased lead times. We also rely on a number of supply chain partners to whom we outsource activities related to inventory warehousing, order fulfillment, distribution and other direct sales logistics. Our supply chain partners are located in China, Czech Republic, Hong Kong, Mexico, Netherlands, Singapore and a number of other countries in Europe and the Asia Pacific region. Our manufacturers and supply chain partners may experience disruptions in their operations due to equipment breakdowns, adding lines in a different country, labor strikes or shortages, transportation security vulnerabilities, natural disasters, component or material shortages, cyber-attacks, cost increases or other similar problems. Further, in order to minimize their inventory risk, our manufacturers might not order components from third-party suppliers with adequate lead time, thereby affecting our ability to meet our demand forecast. Therefore, if we fail to manage our relationship with our manufacturers and supply chain partners effectively, or if they experience operational difficulties, our ability to ship products to our retailers and distributors could be impaired and our competitive position and reputation could be harmed.
In the event that we receive shipments of products that fail to comply with our technical specifications or that fail to conform to our quality control standards, and we are not able to obtain replacement products in a timely manner, we risk revenue losses from the inability to sell those products, increased administrative and shipping costs, and lower profitability. Additionally, if defects are not discovered until after consumers purchase our products, they could lose confidence in the technical attributes of our products and our business could be harmed. For example, in the first quarter of 2018, we decided to end the life of our REMO accessory due to issues related to battery performance.
We do not control our contract manufacturers or suppliers, including their labor, environmental or other practices. Environmental regulations or changes in the supply, demand or available sources of natural resources may affect
the availability and cost of goods and services necessary to run our business. We require our contract manufacturers and suppliers to comply with our formal supplier code of conduct and relevant standards and have ongoing audit programs in place to assess our suppliers’ compliance with our requirements. We periodically conduct audits of our contract manufacturers’ and suppliers’ compliance with our code of conduct, applicable laws and good industry practices. However, these audits may not be frequent or thorough enough to detect non-compliance. Deliberate violations of labor, environmental or other laws by our contract manufacturers or suppliers, or a failure of these parties to follow ethical business practices, could lead to negative publicity and harm our reputation or brand.
Failure to obtain new, and maintain existing, high-quality event, venue, athlete and celebrity sponsorships could harm our business.
Establishing relationships with high profile sporting and entertainment events, venues, sports leagues and sports associations, athletes and celebrity personalities to evaluate, promote and establish product credibility with consumers, including entering into sponsorship and licensing agreements, has and will continue to be a key element of our marketing strategy. However, as competition in our markets has increased, the costs of obtaining and retaining event, venue, athlete and celebrity sponsorships and licensing agreements have increased. Additionally, we may be forced to sign longer term sponsorships in order to retain relationships. If we are unable to maintain our current associations with our event, venue, athlete and celebrity partners, or to do so at a reasonable cost, we could lose the benefits of these relationships, and we may be required to modify and substantially increase our marketing investments. In addition, actions taken by endorsers of our products that harm their reputations could also harm our brand image with consumers. The failure to correctly identify high impact events and venues or build partnerships with those who develop and promote those events and venues, promising athletes or other appealing personalities to use and endorse our products, or poor performance by our endorsers, could adversely affect our brand and result in decreased sales of our products.
We could be adversely affected by violations of the United States Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, the United Kingdom Bribery Act or similar anti-bribery laws in other jurisdictions in which we operate.
The global nature of our business and the significance of our international revenue create various domestic and local regulatory challenges and subject us to risks associated with our international operations. The United States Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, or FCPA, the United Kingdom Bribery Act 2010, or the U.K. Bribery Act, and similar anti-bribery and anti-corruption laws in other jurisdictions generally prohibit United States based companies and their intermediaries from making improper payments to non-United States officials for the purpose of obtaining or retaining business, directing business to another, or securing an advantage. In addition, United States public companies are required to maintain records that accurately and fairly represent their transactions and have an adequate system of internal accounting controls. Under the FCPA, United States companies may be held liable for the corrupt actions taken by directors, officers, employees, agents, or other strategic or local partners or representatives. As such, if we or our intermediaries fail to comply with the requirements of the FCPA or similar legislation, governmental authorities in the United States and elsewhere could seek to impose substantial civil and/or criminal fines and penalties which could have a material adverse effect on our business, reputation, operating results and financial condition.
We operate in areas of the world that experience corruption by government officials to some degree and, in certain circumstances, compliance with anti-bribery and anti-corruption laws may conflict with local customs and practices. Our global operations require us to import and export to and from several countries, which geographically expands our compliance obligations. In addition, changes in such laws could result in increased regulatory requirements and compliance costs which could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations. We cannot be assured that our employees or other agents will not engage in prohibited conduct and render us responsible under the FCPA or the U.K. Bribery Act. While we have compliance programs, they may not be effective to prevent violations from occurring and employees may engage in prohibited conduct nonetheless.If we are found to be in violation of the FCPA, the U.K. Bribery Act or other anti-bribery or anti-corruption laws (either due to acts or inadvertence of our employees, or due to the acts or inadvertence of others), we could suffer criminal or civil penalties or other sanctions, which could have a material adverse effect on our business.
Our effective tax rate and the intended tax benefits of our corporate structure and intercompany arrangements depend on the application of the tax laws of various jurisdictions and on how we operate our business.
We are subject to income taxes in the United States and various jurisdictions outside the United States. Our effective tax rate could fluctuate due to changes in the mix of earnings and losses in countries with differing statutory tax rates. For example, our effective tax rates could be adversely affected by earnings being lower than anticipated in countries where we have lower statutory rates and higher than anticipated in countries where we have higher statutory rates. Our tax expense could also be affected by changes in non-deductible expenses, changes in excess tax benefits related to exercises and vesting of stock-based expense, and the applicability of withholding taxes.
Due to economic and political conditions, tax rates in various jurisdictions may be subject to significant change. Our future effective tax rate could be unfavorably affected by changes in the tax rates in jurisdictions where our income is earned, by changes in, or our interpretation, of tax rules and regulations in the jurisdictions in which we do business, by unanticipated decreases in the amounts of jurisdictional earnings, or by changes in the valuation of our deferred tax assets and liabilities. The United States, the European Commission, countries in the European Union, Australia, and other countries where we do business have been considering changes in relevant tax, accounting and other laws, regulations and interpretations, including changes to tax laws applicable to corporate multinationals. These potential changes could adversely affect our effective tax rates or result in other costs to us.
In addition, we are subject to the examination of our income tax returns by the United States Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and other domestic and foreign tax authorities. These tax examinations are expected to focus on our intercompany transfer pricing practices as well as other matters. We regularly assess the likelihood of outcomes resulting from these examinations to determine the adequacy of our provision for income taxes and other taxes and have reserved for adjustments that may result from the current examinations. We cannot provide assurance that the final determination of any of these examinations will not have an adverse effect on our operating results and financial position.
If we are unable to maintain effective internal control in the future, we may not be able to produce timely and accurate financial statements, which could adversely affect our investors’ confidence and our stock price.
Pursuant to Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, we are required to evaluate and determine the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting, and to include a management report assessing the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting. We expect that the requirements of these rules and regulations will continue to place significant demands on our financial and operational resources, as well as IT systems.
While we have determined that our internal control over financial reporting was effective as of December 31, 2019, we must continue to monitor and assess our internal control over financial reporting. Our control environment may not be sufficient to remediate or prevent future material weaknesses or significant deficiencies from occurring. A control system, no matter how well designed and operated, can provide only reasonable assurance that the control system’s objectives will be met. Due to the inherent limitations in all control systems, no evaluation of controls can provide absolute assurance that misstatements due to error or fraud will not occur or that all control issues and all instances of fraud will be detected.
If we are unable to assert that our internal control over financial reporting is effective, or if our independent registered public accounting firm is unable to express an opinion as to the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting, investors may lose confidence in the accuracy and completeness of our financial reports and the market price of our Class A common stock could be negatively affected, and we could become subject to investigations by the stock exchange on which our securities are listed, the SEC or other regulatory authorities.
We use open source software in our platform that may subject our technology to general release or require us to re-engineer our solutions, which may cause harm to our business.
We use open source software in connection with our services. From time to time, companies that incorporate open source software into their products have faced claims challenging the ownership of open source software
and/or compliance with open source license terms. Therefore, we could be subject to suits by parties claiming ownership of what we believe to be open source software or noncompliance with open source licensing terms. Some open source software licenses require users who distribute or make available open source software as part of their software to publicly disclose all or part of the source code to such software or make available any derivative works of the open source code on unfavorable terms or at no cost. While we monitor our use of open source software and try to ensure that none is used in a manner that would require us to disclose the source code or that would otherwise breach the terms of an open source agreement, such use could nevertheless occur and we may be required to release our proprietary source code, pay damages for breach of contract, re-engineer our applications, discontinue sales in the event re-engineering cannot be accomplished on a timely basis or take other remedial action that may divert resources away from our development efforts, any of which could adversely affect our business, financial condition or operating results.
Our reported financial results may be negatively impacted by the changes in the accounting principles generally accepted in the United States.
Generally accepted accounting principles in the United States are subject to interpretation by the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB), the SEC and various bodies formed to promulgate and interpret appropriate accounting principles. A change in these principles or interpretations could have a significant effect on our reported financial results, and may even affect the reporting of transactions completed before the announcement or effectiveness of a change. Other companies in our industry may apply these accounting principles differently than we do, which may affect the comparability of our consolidated financial statements. For example, in February 2016, the Financial Accounting Standards Board issued Accounting Standards Update No. 2016-02 (Topic 842), Leases, which requires operating leases to be recognized on the balance sheet as a lease liability and corresponding right-of-use asset. Topic 842 was applied using a modified retrospective approach and was effective for financial statements issued for fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2018, and interim periods within those fiscal years. Early adoption was permitted. See Note 1 Summary of business and significant accounting policies, to the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements of this Annual Report on Form 10-K for a discussion on recent accounting standards.
If our estimates or judgments relating to our critical accounting policies and estimates prove to be incorrect, our operating results could be adversely affected.
The preparation of financial statements in conformity with GAAP requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the amounts reported in the consolidated financial statements and accompanying notes. We base our estimates on historical experience and on various other assumptions that we believe to be reasonable under the circumstances, as provided in this 2019 Annual Report for the year ended December 31, 2019 in the section titled Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations. The results of these estimates form the basis for making judgments about the carrying values of assets, liabilities and equity, and the amount of revenue and expenses that are not readily apparent from other sources. Our operating results may be adversely affected if our assumptions change or if actual circumstances differ from those in our assumptions, which could cause our operating results to fall below the expectations of securities analysts and investors, resulting in a decline in our stock price. Significant estimates and assumptions made by management include those related to revenue recognition (including sales incentives, sales returns and implied post contract support), stock-based compensation, inventory valuation, product warranty liabilities, the valuation and useful lives of long-lived assets (property and equipment, operating lease right-of-use assets, intangible assets and goodwill) and income taxes.
Catastrophic events or political instability could disrupt and cause harm to our business.
Our headquarters are located in the San Francisco Bay Area of California, an area susceptible to earthquakes. A major earthquake or other natural disaster, fire, threat of fire, act of terrorism, public health issues or other catastrophic event in California or elsewhere that results in the destruction or disruption of any of our critical business operations or information technology systems could severely affect our ability to conduct normal business operations and, as a result, our future operating results could be harmed. Our key manufacturing, supply and distribution partners have global operations including China, Hong Kong, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, Singapore, Taiwan and the United States. Political instability, public health issues or other catastrophic events in
any of those countries could adversely affect our business in the future, our financial condition and operating results.
If we fail to comply with environmental regulations and conflict minerals disclosures, our business, financial condition, operating results and reputation could be adversely affected.
We are subject to various federal, state, local and international environmental laws and regulations including laws regulating the manufacture, import, use, discharge and disposal of hazardous materials, labeling and notice requirements relating to potential consumer exposure to certain chemicals, and laws relating to the collection of and recycling of electrical and electronic equipment and their packaging.
We are also subject to the SEC’s conflict minerals rule which requires disclosure by public companies of the origin, source and chain of custody of specified minerals, known as conflict minerals, that are necessary to the functionality or production of products manufactured or contracted to be manufactured. We have and will continue to incur costs associated with complying with the rule, such as costs related to sourcing of certain minerals (or derivatives thereof), the determination of the origin, source and chain of custody of the minerals used in our products, the adoption of conflict minerals-related governance policies, processes and controls, and possible changes to products or sources of supply as a result of such activities. Within our supply chain, we may not be able to sufficiently verify the origins of the relevant minerals used in our products through the data collection and due diligence procedures that we implement, which may harm our reputation.
Although we have policies and procedures in place requiring our contract manufacturers and major component suppliers to comply with applicable federal, state, local and international requirements, we cannot confirm that our manufacturers and suppliers consistently comply with these requirements. In addition, if there are changes to these or other laws (or their interpretation) or if new similar laws are passed in other jurisdictions, we may be required to re-engineer our products to use components compatible with these regulations. This re-engineering and component substitution could result in additional costs to us or disrupt our operations or logistics.
Changes in interpretation of any federal, state, local or international regulation may cause us to incur costs or have additional regulatory requirements to meet in the future in order to comply, or with any similar laws adopted in other jurisdictions. Our failure to comply with past, present and future similar laws could result in reduced sales of our products, substantial product inventory write-offs, reputational damage, penalties and other sanctions, which could harm our business and financial condition. We also expect that our products will be affected by new environmental laws and regulations on an ongoing basis. To date, our expenditures for environmental compliance have not had a material effect on our results of operations or cash flows and, although we cannot predict the future effect of such laws or regulations, they will likely result in additional costs and may increase penalties associated with violations or require us to change the content of our products or how they are manufactured, which could have a material adverse effect on our business and financial condition.
Risks related to Ownership of our Class A Common Stock
Our stock price has been and will likely continue to be volatile.
Since shares of our Class A common stock were sold in our IPO in July 2014 at a price of $24.00 per share, our closing stock price has ranged from $3.38 to $93.85 per share through December 31, 2019. Our stock price may fluctuate in response to a number of events and factors, such as quarterly operating results; changes in our financial projections provided to the public or our failure to meet those projections; the public’s reaction to our press releases, other public announcements and filings with the SEC; significant transactions, or new features, products or services offered by us or our competitors; changes in our business lines and product lineup; changes in financial estimates and recommendations by securities analysts; media coverage of our business and financial performance; the operating and stock price performance of, or other developments involving, other companies that investors may deem comparable to us; trends in our industry; any significant change in our management; sales and purchases of any Class A common stock issued upon conversion of our convertible senior notes or in connection with the prepaid forward contract entered into in connection with such convertible senior notes, and general economic conditions. These factors, as well as the volatility of our Class A common stock, could also affect the price of our convertible senior notes.
In addition, the stock market in general, and the market prices for companies in our industry, have experienced volatility that often has been unrelated to operating performance. These broad market and industry fluctuations may adversely affect the price of our stock, regardless of our operating performance. Price volatility over a given period may cause the average price at which we repurchase our own stock to exceed the stock’s price at a given point in time. Volatility in our stock price also affects the value of our equity compensation, which affects our ability to recruit and retain employees. In addition, some companies that have experienced volatility in the market price of their stock have been subject to securities class action litigation. We have been subject to past shareholder class action lawsuits as well as derivative lawsuits and may continue to be a target for such litigation in the future. Securities litigation against us could result in substantial costs and liability and divert our management’s attention from other business concerns, which could harm our business. See Legal Proceedings.
If we fail to meet expectations related to future growth, profitability, or other market expectations, our stock price may decline significantly, which could have a material adverse effect on investor confidence and employee retention. A sustained decline in our stock price and market capitalization could lead to impairment charges.
The dual class structure of our common stock has the effect of concentrating voting control with our CEO and we cannot predict the effect our dual class structure may have on our stock price or our business.
Our Class B common stock has 10 votes per share, and our Class A common stock has one vote per share. Stockholders who hold shares of Class B common stock hold approximately 69.5% of the voting power of our outstanding capital stock as of December 31, 2019 with Mr. Woodman, our Chairman and CEO, holding approximately 69.3% of the outstanding voting power. Mr. Woodman is able to control all matters submitted to our stockholders, including the election of directors, amendments of our organizational documents and any merger, consolidation, sale of all or substantially all of our assets or other major corporate transaction. This concentrated control could delay, defer, or prevent a change of control, merger, consolidation, or sale of all or substantially all of our assets that our other stockholders support, or conversely this concentrated control could result in the consummation of such a transaction that our other stockholders do not support. This concentrated control could also discourage a potential investor from acquiring our Class A common stock due to the limited voting power of such stock relative to the Class B common stock and might harm the trading price of our Class A common stock.
In addition, we cannot predict whether our dual class structure, combined with the concentrated control by Mr. Woodman, will result in a lower or more volatile market price of our Class A common stock or in adverse publicity or other adverse consequences. For example, certain index providers have announced restrictions on including companies with multiple-class share structures in certain of their indexes. In July 2017, FTSE Russell announced that it plans to require new constituents of its indexes to have greater than 5% of the company’s voting rights in the hands of public stockholders, and S&P Dow Jones announced that it will no longer admit companies with multiple-class share structures to certain of its indexes. Because of our dual class structure, we may be excluded from these indexes and we cannot assure you that other stock indexes will not take similar actions. Given the sustained flow of investment funds into passive strategies that seek to track certain indexes, exclusion from stock indexes would likely preclude investment by many of these funds and could make our Class A common stock less attractive to other investors. As a result, the market price of our Class A common stock could be adversely affected.
If securities analysts do not publish research or publish inaccurate or unfavorable research about our business, our stock price and trading volume could decline.
The trading market for our Class A common stock depends in part on the research and reports that securities or industry analysts publish about us or our business. If one or more of the analysts who cover us downgrade our stock or publish inaccurate or unfavorable research about our business, our stock price would likely decline. If one or more of these analysts cease coverage of our company or fail to publish reports on us regularly, demand for our stock could decrease, which might cause our stock price and trading volume to decline.
Delaware law and provisions in our restated certificate of incorporation and amended and restated bylaws could make a merger, tender offer or proxy contest difficult, thereby depressing the trading price of our Class A common stock.
Our status as a Delaware corporation and the anti-takeover provisions of the Delaware General Corporation Law may discourage, delay or prevent a change in control by prohibiting us from engaging in a business combination
with an interested stockholder for a period of three years after the person becomes an interested stockholder, even if a change in control would be beneficial to our existing stockholders. In addition, our restated certificate of incorporation and amended and restated bylaws contain provisions that may make the acquisition of our company more difficult without the approval of our board of directors, or otherwise adversely affect the rights of the holders of our Class A and Class B common stock, including the following:
our board of directors is not currently classified, but at such time as all shares of our Class B common stock have been converted into shares of our Class A common stock, our board of directors will be classified into three classes of directors with staggered three-year terms;
so long as any shares of our Class B common stock are outstanding, special meetings of our stockholders may be called by the holders of 10% of the outstanding voting power of all then outstanding shares of stock, a majority of our board of directors, the chairman of our board of directors or our chief executive officer;
when no shares of our Class B common stock are outstanding, only the chairman of our board of directors, our chief executive officer or a majority of our board of directors will be authorized to call a special meeting of stockholders;
our stockholders may only take action at a meeting of stockholders and not by written consent;
vacancies on our board of directors may be filled only by our board of directors and not by stockholders;
directors may be removed from office with or without cause so long as our board of directors is not classified, and thereafter directors may be removed from office only for cause;
our restated certificate of incorporation provides for a dual class common stock structure in which holders of our Class B common stock have the ability to control the outcome of matters requiring stockholder approval, even if they own significantly less than a majority of the outstanding shares of our Class A and Class B common stock, including the election of directors and significant corporate transactions, such as a merger or other sale of our company or its assets;
our restated certificate of incorporation authorizes undesignated preferred stock, the terms of which may be established, and shares of which may be issued, by our board of directors without stockholder approval and which may contain voting, liquidation, dividend and other rights superior to those of our Class A and Class B common stock; and
advance notice procedures apply for stockholders to nominate candidates for election as directors or to bring matters before an annual meeting of stockholders.
Risks related to our convertible senior notes
We have indebtedness in the form of convertible senior notes.
In April 2017, we completed an offering of $175.0 million aggregate principal amount of 3.50% convertible senior Notes due 2022 (Notes). As a result of this Notes offering, we incurred $175.0 million principal amount of indebtedness, the principal amount of which we may be required to pay at maturity in 2022. Holders of the Notes will have the right to require us to repurchase their Notes upon the occurrence of a fundamental change at a purchase price equal to 100% of the principal amount of the Notes to be purchased, plus accrued and unpaid interest, if any. In addition, the indenture for the Notes provides that we are required to repay amounts due under the indenture in the event that there is an event of default for the Notes that results in the principal, premium, if any, and interest, if any, becoming due prior to Maturity Date for the Notes. There can be no assurance that we will be able to repay this indebtedness when due, or that we will be able to refinance this indebtedness on acceptable terms or at all. In addition, this indebtedness could, among other things:
heighten our vulnerability to adverse general economic conditions and heightened competitive pressures;
require us to dedicate a larger portion of our cash flow from operations to interest payments, limiting the availability of cash for other purposes;
limit our flexibility in planning for, or reacting to, changes in our business and industry; and
impair our ability to obtain additional financing in the future for working capital, capital expenditures, acquisitions, general corporate purposes or other purposes.
In addition, our ability to purchase the Notes or repay prior to maturity any accelerated amounts under the Notes upon an event of default or pay cash upon conversions of the Notes may be limited by law, by regulatory authority or by agreements governing our indebtedness outstanding at the time, including our credit facility. Our credit facility restricts our ability to repurchase the Notes for cash or repay prior to maturity any accelerated amounts under the Notes upon an event of default or pay cash upon conversion of the Notes to the extent that on the date of such repurchase, repayment or conversion, as the case may be, after giving pro forma effect to such payment, our remaining borrowing capacity pursuant to such credit facility falls below (i) to the extent that our fixed charge coverage ratio is at least to 1.0, the greater of (A) $37.5 million and (B) 15% of the lesser of the aggregate commitments under such credit facility and the aggregate borrowing base then in effect or (ii) to the extent that our fixed charge coverage ratio is less than 1.0 to 1.0, the greater of (A) $50.0 million and (B) 20% of the lesser of the aggregate commitments under such credit facility and the aggregate borrowing base then in effect. Any of our future indebtedness may contain similar restrictions. Our failure to repurchase Notes at a time when the repurchase is required by the indenture (whether upon a fundamental change or otherwise under the indenture) or pay cash payable on future conversions of the Notes as required by the indenture would constitute a default under the indenture. A default under the indenture or the fundamental change itself could also lead to a default under agreements governing our existing or future indebtedness, including our credit facility. If the repayment of the related indebtedness were to be accelerated after any applicable notice or grace periods, we may not have sufficient funds to repay the indebtedness, repurchase the Notes or make cash payments upon conversions thereof.
Our credit facility imposes restrictions on us that may adversely affect our ability to operate our business.
Our credit facility contains restrictive covenants relating to our capital raising activities and other financial and operational matters which may make it more difficult for us to obtain additional capital and to pursue business opportunities, including potential acquisitions. In addition, our credit facility contains, and the agreements governing the Notes will contain, a cross-default provision whereby a default under one agreement would likely result in cross defaults under agreements covering other borrowings. For example, the occurrence of a default with respect to any indebtedness or any failure to repay debt when due in an amount in excess of $25 million would cause a cross default under the indenture governing the Notes, as well as under our credit facility. The occurrence of a default under any of these borrowing arrangements would permit the holders of the Notes or the lenders under our credit facility to declare all amounts outstanding under those borrowing arrangements to be immediately due and payable. If the note holders or the trustee under the indenture governing the Notes or the lenders under our credit facility accelerate the repayment of borrowings, we cannot assure you that we will have sufficient assets to repay those borrowings.
Conversion of the Notes will, to the extent we deliver shares upon conversion of such Notes, dilute the ownership interest of existing stockholders, including holders who had previously converted their Notes, or may otherwise depress our stock price.
The conversion of some or all of the Notes will dilute the ownership interests of existing stockholders to the extent we deliver shares upon conversion of any of the Notes. Any sales in the public market of the common stock issuable upon such conversion could adversely affect prevailing market prices of our common stock. In addition, the existence of the Notes may encourage short selling by market participants because the conversion of the Notes could be used to satisfy short positions, or anticipated conversion of the Notes into shares of our common stock could depress our stock price.
The conditional conversion feature of the Notes, if triggered, may adversely affect our financial condition and operating results.
In the event the conditional conversion feature of the Notes is triggered, holders of the Notes will be entitled to convert the Notes at any time during specified periods at their option. If one or more holders elect to convert their Notes, unless we elect to satisfy our conversion obligation by delivering solely shares of our common stock (other than cash in lieu of any fractional share), we would be required to settle a portion or all of our conversion obligation through the payment of cash, which could adversely affect our liquidity. In addition, even if holders of
the Notes do not elect to convert their Notes, we could be required under applicable accounting rules to reclassify all or a portion of the outstanding principal of the Notes as a current rather than long-term liability, which would result in a material reduction of our net working capital.
The accounting method for convertible debt securities that may be settled in cash, such as the Notes, may have a material effect on our reported financial results.
Under GAAP, an entity must separately account for the debt component and the embedded conversion option of convertible debt instruments that may be settled entirely or partially in cash upon conversion, such as the Notes we are offering, in a manner that reflects the issuer’s economic interest cost. The effect of the accounting treatment for such instruments is that the value of such embedded conversion option would be treated as original issue discount for purposes of accounting for the debt component of the Notes, and that original issue discount is amortized into interest expense over the term of the Notes using an effective yield method. As a result, we will initially be required to record a greater amount of non-cash interest expense because of the amortization of the original issue discount to the Notes’ face amount over the term of the Notes and because of the amortization of the debt issuance costs.
Accordingly, we will report lower net income (or greater net loss) in our financial results because of the recognition of both the current period’s amortization of the debt discount and the Notes’ coupon interest, which could adversely affect our reported or future financial results, the trading price of our common stock and the trading price of the Notes.
In addition, convertible debt instruments (such as the Notes) that may be settled entirely or partly in cash are currently accounted for utilizing the if-converted method, the effect of which is that conversion will not be assumed for purposes of computing diluted income (loss) per share if the effect would be antidilutive. Under the if-converted method, for diluted income (loss) per share purposes, convertible debt is antidilutive whenever its interest, net of tax and nondiscretionary adjustments, per common share obtainable on conversion exceeds basic income (loss) per share. Dilutive securities that are issued during a period and dilutive convertible securities for which conversion options lapse, or for which related debt is extinguished during a period, will be included in the denominator of diluted income (loss) per share for the period that they were outstanding. Likewise, dilutive convertible securities converted during a period will be included in the denominator for the period prior to actual conversion. Moreover, interest charges applicable to the convertible debt will be added back to the numerator. We cannot be sure that the accounting standards in the future will continue to permit the use of the if-converted method. If we are unable to use the if-converted method in accounting for the shares issuable upon conversion of the Notes, then our diluted income (loss) per share would be adversely affected.
In addition, if the conditional conversion feature of the Notes is triggered, even if holders do not elect to convert their Notes, we could be required under applicable accounting rules to reclassify all or a portion of the outstanding principal of the Notes as a current rather than long-term liability, which would result in a material reduction of our net working capital.
The prepaid forward may affect the value of the Notes and our common stock and may result in unexpected market activity in the Notes and/or our common stock.
In connection with the issuance of the Notes, we entered into a prepaid forward with a forward counterparty. The prepaid forward is intended to facilitate privately negotiated derivative transactions by which investors in the Notes will be able to hedge their investment. In connection with establishing its initial hedge of the prepaid forward, the forward counterparty (or its affiliate) entered into or expects to enter into one or more derivative transactions with respect to our Class A common stock with purchasers of the Notes concurrently with or after the offering of the Notes. The prepaid forward is intended to reduce the dilution to our stockholders from the issuance of our Class A common stock (if any) upon conversion of the Notes andto allow certain investors to establish short positions that generally correspond to commercially reasonable initial hedges of their investment in the Notes. In addition, the forward counterparty (or its affiliate) may modify its hedge position by entering into or unwinding one or more derivative transactions with respect to our Class A common stock and/or purchasing or selling our Class A common stock or other securities of ours in secondary market transactions at any time, including following the offering of the Notes and immediately prior to or shortly after April 15, 2022, the Maturity Date of the Notes (and are likely to unwind their derivative transactions and/or purchase or sell our Class A
common stock in connection with any conversion or repurchase of the Notes, in connection with the purchase or sale of Notes by certain investors and/or in the event that sufficient borrow of our Class A common stock becomes available). These activities could also cause or avoid an increase or a decrease in the market price of our Class A common stock or the Notes.
The prepaid forward initially facilitated privately negotiated derivative transactions relating to our Class A common stock, including derivative transactions by which investors in the Notes established short positions relating to our Class A common stock to hedge their investments in the Notes concurrently with, or shortly after, the placement of the Notes. Neither we nor the forward counterparty control how such investors may use such derivative transactions. In addition, such investors may enter into other transactions in connection with such derivative transactions, including the purchase or sale of our Class A common stock, at any time. As a result, the existence of the prepaid forward, such derivative transactions, and any related market activity could cause more sales of our Class A common stock over the term of the prepaid forward than there would have otherwise been had we not entered into the prepaid forward. Such sales could potentially affect the market price of our Class A common stock and/or the Notes.
The fundamental change repurchase feature of the Notes may delay or prevent an otherwise beneficial attempt to take over our company.
The terms of the Notes require us to repurchase the Notes in the event of a fundamental change. A takeover of our company would trigger an option of the holders of the Notes to require us to repurchase the Notes. In addition, if a make-whole fundamental change occurs prior to the Maturity Date of the Notes, we will in some cases be required to increase the conversion rate for a holder that elects to convert its Notes in connection with such make-whole fundamental change. Furthermore, the indenture for the Notes prohibits us from engaging in certain mergers or acquisitions unless, among other things, the surviving entity assumes our obligations under the Notes. These and other provisions of the indenture may have the effect of delaying or preventing a takeover of our company.
We are subject to counterparty risk with respect to the prepaid forward.
We will be subject to the risk that the forward counterparty might default under the prepaid forward. Our exposure to the credit risk of the forward counterparty will not be secured by any collateral. Global economic conditions have in the recent past resulted in, and may again result in, the actual or perceived failure or financial difficulties of many financial institutions. If the forward counterparty becomes subject to insolvency proceedings, we will become an unsecured creditor in those proceedings, with a claim equal to our exposure at that time under our transactions with the forward counterparty. Our exposure will depend on many factors, but, generally, an increase in our exposure will be correlated to an increase in the market price of our common stock. In addition, upon a default by the forward counterparty, we may suffer more dilution than we currently anticipate with respect to our Class A common stock. We can provide no assurances as to the financial stability or viability of the forward counterparty to the prepaid forward.
Item 1B. Unresolved Staff Comments
None.
Item 2. Properties
As of December 31, 2019, we leased office facilities around the world totaling approximately 370,000 square feet, including approximately 198,000 square feet for our corporate headquarters in San Mateo, California. All of our properties are currently leased. We believe our existing facilities are adequate to meet our current requirements. If we were to require additional space, we believe we will be able to obtain such space on acceptable, commercially reasonable terms. See Note 9 Commitments, contingencies and guarantees, to the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements of this Annual Report on Form 10-K for more information about our lease commitments.
Item 3. Legal Proceedings
On February 13, 2018 and February 27, 2018, two purported shareholder derivative lawsuits (the Consolidated Federal Derivative Actions) were filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California against certain of GoPro’s current and former directors and executive officers and naming the Company as a nominal defendant. The Consolidated Federal Derivative Actions are based on allegations similar to those in two now-resolved shareholder class actions - one filed in 2016 which was settled and received final approval of the Court on September 20, 2019, and the other filed in 2018 which had final judgment entered in favor of defendants on June 24, 2019, following the Court’s granting of defendants’ motion to dismiss. The Consolidated Federal Derivative Actions assert causes of action against the individual defendants for breach of fiduciary duty, and for making false and misleading statements about the Company’s business, operations and prospects in violation of Sections 10(b) and 14(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. The plaintiffs seek corporate reforms, disgorgement of profits from stock sales, and fees and costs. The Consolidated Federal Derivative Actions are currently stayed.
Different shareholders filed two similar purported shareholder derivative actions on October 30, 2018 and November 7, 2018 in the Delaware Court of Chancery (the Consolidated Delaware Derivative Actions). Defendants’ motion to dismiss the Consolidated Delaware Derivative Actions is pending.
Other shareholders filed similar purported shareholder derivative actions on December 26, 2018, February 15, 2019, and January 27, 2020 in the Delaware Court of Chancery. Those actions are either stayed or defendants’ time to respond to the complaint has not yet passed.
On January 5, 2015, Contour LLC filed a complaint against the Company in federal court in Utah alleging, among other things, patent infringement in relation to certain GoPro cameras. On November 30, 2015, Contour dismissed the Utah action. On November 30, 2015, Contour IP Holdings LLC (“CIPH”), a non-practicing entity re-filed a similar complaint in Delaware seeking unspecified damages. GoPro filed an inter partes review (IPR) at the US Patent and Trademark Office. The case was transferred to the Northern District of California in July 2017 and was stayed in favor of the IPR proceedings, most recently on December 12, 2018. Upon conclusion of the IPRs, the District Court lifted the stay on October 1, 2019. On October 8, 2019, the court entered a schedule for the remainder of the case, with trial currently scheduled to begin on August 31, 2020. We believe that this matter lacks merit and we intend to vigorously defend against CIPH.
We are currently, and in the future, may continue to be, subject to litigation, claims and assertions incidental to our business, including patent infringement litigation and product liability claims, as well as other litigation of a non-material nature in the ordinary course of business. Due to inherent uncertainties of litigation, we cannot accurately predict the ultimate outcome of these matters. We are unable at this time to determine whether the outcome of the litigation would have a material effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations or cash flows.
Item 4. Mine Safety Disclosures
Not applicable.
PART II
Item 5. Market for the Company’s Common Shares, Related Shareholder Matters and Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities
Market Information. Our Class A common stock is listed on The Nasdaq Global Select Market under the symbol “GPRO.” Our Class B common stock is not listed nor traded on any stock exchange.
Holders. As of January 31, 2020, there were 145 holders of record of our Class A common stock and 32 holders of record of our Class B common stock.
Dividends. We have not declared or paid any cash dividends on our capital stock and do not currently intend to pay any cash dividends on our Class A or Class B common stock in the foreseeable future.
Securities authorized for issuance under equity compensation plans. The information required by this item will be included in an amendment to this Annual Report on Form 10-K or incorporated by reference from our Proxy Statement to be filed with the SEC for our 2020 Annual Meeting of Stockholders within 120 days after the end of our fiscal year ended December 31, 2019.
Performance graph. The graph below compares the cumulative total return on our Class A common stock with that of the S&P 500 Index and the S&P 500 Consumer Durables Index. The graph assumes $100 was invested (with reinvestment of all dividends, as applicable) at the close of market on December 31, 2014 in the Class A common stock of GoPro, Inc., the S&P 500 Index and the S&P 500 Consumer Durables Index, and its relative performance is tracked through December 31, 2019. Note that historic stock price performance is not intended to be indicative of future stock price performance.
Sales of unregistered securities. During the period covered by this Annual Report on Form 10-K, we have not sold any equity securities that were not registered under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended.
Issuer purchases of equity securities.No shares of our Class A or Class B common stock were purchased during the fourth quarter of 2019.
Item 6. Selected Consolidated Financial Data
The information set forth below for the five years ended December 31, 2019 is not necessarily indicative of results of future operations, and should be read in conjunction with Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations and the consolidated financial statements, related notes and other financial information included elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
| Year ended December 31, | |||||||||||||||||||
| (dollars in thousands, except per share amounts) | 2019 | 2018 (1) | 2017 (1) | 2016 (1) | 2015 (1) | ||||||||||||||
| Consolidated statements of operations data: | |||||||||||||||||||
| Revenue | $ | 1,194,651 | $ | 1,148,337 | $ | 1,179,741 | $ | 1,185,481 | $ | 1,619,971 | |||||||||
| Gross profit | $ | 412,789 | $ | 361,434 | $ | 384,530 | $ | 461,920 | $ | 673,214 | |||||||||
| Gross margin | 34.6 | % | 31.5 | % | 32.6 | % | 39.0 | % | 41.6 | % | |||||||||
| Operating income (loss) | $ | (2,333 | ) | $ | (93,962 | ) | $ | (163,460 | ) | $ | (372,969 | ) | $ | 54,748 | |||||
| Net income (loss) | $ | (14,642 | ) | $ | (109,034 | ) | $ | (182,873 | ) | $ | (419,003 | ) | $ | 36,131 | |||||
| Net income (loss) per share: | |||||||||||||||||||
| Basic | $ | (0.10 | ) | $ | (0.78 | ) | $ | (1.32 | ) | $ | (3.01 | ) | $ | 0.27 | |||||
| Diluted | $ | (0.10 | ) | $ | (0.78 | ) | $ | (1.32 | ) | $ | (3.01 | ) | $ | 0.25 | |||||
| Other financial information: | |||||||||||||||||||
Adjusted EBITDA (2) | $ | 71,958 | $ | 21,778 | $ | (31,368 | ) | $ | (192,807 | ) | $ | 179,309 | |||||||
Non-GAAP net income (loss) (3) | $ | 35,255 | $ | (31,909 | ) | $ | (95,867 | ) | $ | (201,247 | ) | $ | 111,564 | ||||||
| Non-GAAP diluted income (loss) per share | $ | 0.24 | $ | (0.23 | ) | $ | (0.69 | ) | $ | (1.44 | ) | $ | 0.76 | ||||||
(1) | The Company adopted Accounting Standards Update (ASU) 2016-02, Leases (Topic 842) on January 1, 2019, and adopted ASU 2014-09, Revenue from Contracts with Customers (Topic 606), and ASU 2016-16 Income Taxes - Intra-Entity Transfers of Assets Other Than Inventory on January 1, 2018. Prior periods were not adjusted for the adoption of these standards. |
(2) | We define adjusted EBITDA as net income (loss) adjusted to exclude the impact of: provision for income taxes, interest income, interest expense, depreciation and amortization, point of purchase (POP) display amortization, stock-based compensation, impairment charges and restructuring costs. |
(3) | We define non-GAAP net income as net income (loss) adjusted to exclude stock-based compensation, acquisition-related costs, restructuring costs, non-cash interest expense, gain on sale and license of intellectual property and income tax adjustments. Acquisition-related costs include the amortization of acquired intangible assets and impairment write-downs (if applicable), as well as third-party transaction costs for legal and other professional services. |
See Non-GAAP Financial Measures in Item 7Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations for additional information and a reconciliation of net income (loss) to Adjusted EBITDA, net income (loss) to non-GAAP net income (loss), and shares used in the calculation of non-GAAP diluted income (loss) per share.
| As of December 31, | |||||||||||||||||||
| (in thousands) | 2019 | 2018 (1) | 2017 (1) | 2016 (1) | 2015 (1) | ||||||||||||||
| Consolidated balance sheet data: | |||||||||||||||||||
| Cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities | $ | 165,148 | $ | 197,512 | $ | 247,390 | $ | 217,953 | $ | 474,058 | |||||||||
| Inventory | 144,236 | 116,458 | 150,551 | 167,192 | 188,232 | ||||||||||||||
| Working capital | 208,925 | 174,574 | 203,156 | 157,074 | 538,066 | ||||||||||||||
| Total assets | 792,803 | 698,359 | 850,246 | 922,640 | 1,102,976 | ||||||||||||||
| Total indebtedness | 148,810 | 138,992 | 130,048 | — | — | ||||||||||||||
| Total stockholders’ equity | 233,529 | 212,112 | 298,705 | 446,945 | 772,033 | ||||||||||||||
(1) | The Company adopted Accounting Standards Update (ASU) 2016-02, Leases (Topic 842) on January 1, 2019, and adopted ASU 2014-09, Revenue from Contracts with Customers (Topic 606), and ASU 2016-16 Income Taxes - Intra-Entity Transfers of Assets Other Than Inventory on January 1, 2018. Prior periods were not adjusted for the adoption of these standards. |
GoPro, Inc.
Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations
Item 7. Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations (MD&A)
The following discussion and analysis of our financial condition and results of operations should be read in conjunction with our consolidated financial statements, related notes and other financial information appearing elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K. In addition to historical consolidated financial information, the following discussion contains forward-looking statements that reflect our plans, estimates and beliefs. Our actual results could differ materially from those discussed in the forward-looking statements as a result of a variety of factors, including but not limited to, those discussed in Risk Factors and elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K. This MD&A is organized as follows:
| • | Overview. Discussion of our business and overall analysis of financial and other highlights affecting the Company in order to provide context for the remainder of MD&A. |
| • | Components of Our Results of Operations. Description of the items contained in each operating revenue and expense caption in the consolidated statements of operations. |
| • | Results of Operations. Analysis of our financial results comparing 2019 to 2018 is presented below. An analysis of our financial results comparing 2018 to 2017 can be found under “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” in Part II, Item 7 in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2018, filed with the SEC on February 15, 2019, which is available free of charge on the SEC’s website at www.sec.gov and our Investor Relations website at https://investor.gopro.com. |
| • | Liquidity and Capital Resources. Analysis of changes in our balance sheets and cash flows, and discussion of our financial condition and potential sources of liquidity. |
| • | Contractual Commitments. Overview of our contractual obligations, including expected payment schedule and indemnifications as of December 31, 2019. |
| • | Critical Accounting Policies and Estimates. Accounting estimates that we believe are important to understanding the assumptions and judgments incorporated in our reported financial results and forecasts. |
| • | Non-GAAP Financial Measures. A reconciliation and discussion of our GAAP to non-GAAP financial measures. |
Overview
GoPro helps its consumers capture and share their experiences in immersive and exciting ways. We are committed to developing solutions that create an easy, seamless experience for consumers to capture, create, and share engaging personal content. When consumers use our products and services, they often generate and share content that organically increases awareness for GoPro, driving a virtuous cycle and a self-reinforcing demand for our products. We believe revenue growth may be driven by the introduction of new cameras, accessories, subscription offerings and GoPro app monetization. We believe new camera features drive a replacement cycle among existing users and attract new users, expanding our total addressable market. Our investments in image stabilization, mobile app editing and sharing solutions, modular accessories, auto-upload capabilities, local language user-interfaces and voice recognition in more than 12 languages drive the expansion of our global market.
In 2019, we began shipping our HERO8 Black flagship camera which features enhanced HyperSmooth 2.0 image stabilization, TimeWarp Video 2.0, built-in mounting, live streaming, cloud connectivity, voice control, improved audio and a touch display. HyperSmooth 2.0 includes dramatically improved pitch axis stabilization, a new Boost mode for absolute maximum stabilization, and powerful in-app horizon leveling that provides gimbal-like stability. TimeWarp Video 2.0 automatically applies a high-speed, ‘magic-carpet-ride’ effect to videos, while live streaming enables users to share content in real time on social media platforms. We also introduced three new accessories for the HERO8 Black camera, called Mods, which enables users to transform their HERO8 Black camera into a production powerhouse. The Media Mod delivers shotgun-mic performance with an integrated directional microphone, the Light Mod illuminates a scene and the Display Mod allows users to perfectly frame themselves during self-capture. We also began shipping our newest 360-degree waterproof camera, MAX, in 2019. Our MAX
GoPro, Inc.
Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations
camera features MAX HyperSmooth image stabilization, 360-degree MAX TimeWarp Video, MAX SuperView, PowerPano, built-in mounting, high-quality audio, live streaming, voice control and a front facing touch display. MAX HyperSmooth provides the highest performance video stabilization yet, while MAX SuperView provides the widest view ever from a GoPro camera. PowerPano allows users to capture a 6.2mp, 270-degree panoramic photo with the push of one button and creates an artifact-free shot of action or movement. Our MAX camera features six built-in microphones that allow users to capture immersive 360-degree audio, directional audio for vlogging and the best stereo sound ever from a GoPro. Our HERO8 Black, MAX and HERO7 line of cameras are compatible with our ecosystem of mountable and wearable accessories, and feature automatic uploading capabilities for photos and videos to GoPro Plus, our subscription service that provides a camera protection plan, discounts on GoPro accessories and enables subscribers to easily access, edit, store and share their content.
The following is a summary of measures presented in our consolidated financial statements and key metrics used to evaluate our business, measure our performance, develop financial forecasts and make strategic decisions.
| (units and dollars in thousands, except per share amounts) | Q4 2019 | Q4 2018 | % Change | FY 2019 | FY 2018 | % Change | |||||||||||||||
| Revenue | $ | 528,345 | $ | 377,378 | 40 | % | $ | 1,194,651 | $ | 1,148,337 | 4 | % | |||||||||
Camera units shipped (1) | 1,857 | 1,413 | 31 | % | 4,260 | 4,337 | (2 | )% | |||||||||||||
Gross margin (2) | 38.2 | % | 37.7 | % | 50 bps | 34.6 | % | 31.5 | % | 310 bps | |||||||||||
| Operating expenses | $ | 105,725 | $ | 109,150 | (3 | )% | $ | 415,122 | $ | 455,396 | (9 | )% | |||||||||
| Net income (loss) | $ | 95,820 | $ | 31,671 | 203 | % | $ | (14,642 | ) | $ | (109,034 | ) | (87 | )% | |||||||
| Diluted net income (loss) per share | $ | 0.65 | $ | 0.22 | 195 | % | $ | (0.10 | ) | $ | (0.78 | ) | (87 | )% | |||||||
| Cash provided by (used in) operations | $ | 88,251 | $ | 48,413 | 82 | % | $ | (24,444 | ) | $ | (42,434 | ) | (42 | )% | |||||||
| Other financial information: | |||||||||||||||||||||
Adjusted EBITDA (3) | $ | 112,092 | $ | 58,807 | 91 | % | $ | 71,958 | $ | 21,778 | 230 | % | |||||||||
Non-GAAP net income (loss) (4) | $ | 102,498 | $ | 42,356 | 142 | % | $ | 35,255 | $ | (31,909 | ) | (210 | )% | ||||||||
| Non-GAAP income (loss) per share | $ | 0.70 | $ | 0.30 | 133 | % | $ | 0.24 | $ | (0.23 | ) | (204 | )% | ||||||||
(1) | Represents the number of camera units that are shipped during a reporting period, including camera units that are shipped with drones, net of any returns. Camera units shipped does not include drones sold without a camera, mounts or accessories. |
(2) | One basis point (bps) is equal to 1/100th of 1%. |
(3) | We define adjusted EBITDA as net income (loss) adjusted to exclude the impact of: provision for income taxes, interest income, interest expense, depreciation and amortization, point of purchase (POP) display amortization, stock-based compensation, impairment charges, and restructuring and other costs. |
(4) | We define non-GAAP net income (loss) as net income (loss) adjusted to exclude stock-based compensation, acquisition-related costs, restructuring and other costs, non-cash interest expense, gain on sale and license of intellectual property and income tax adjustments. Acquisition-related costs include the amortization of acquired intangible assets and impairment write-downs (if applicable), as well as third-party transaction costs for legal and other professional services. |
Reconciliations of non-GAAP adjusted measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures are presented under Non-GAAP Financial Measures.
GoPro, Inc.
Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations
Full year and fourth quarter 2019 financial performance
Revenue for 2019 was up 4% year-over-year at $1.195 billion, compared to $1.148 billion in 2018. Excluding Karma, revenue for 2019 increased 7% year-over-year. Gross margin for 2019 was 34.6%, up from 31.5% in 2018. The year-over-year margin improvement was primarily due to a favorable sales mix and lower average camera costs in 2019, partially offset by United States tariffs and one-time costs related to the production delay of HERO8 Black. We shipped 4.3 million camera units in 2019, a 2% decrease from 2018. However, our average selling price for 2019 increased 6% year-over-year to $280 (defined as total revenue divided by camera units shipped). Excluding Karma, our 2019 average selling price increased 8% year-over-year.
Revenue for the fourth quarter of 2019 was $528.3 million, a 40% increase year-over-year from $377.4 million in the same period of 2018. In addition, the gross margin percentage for the fourth quarter of 2019 was 38.2%, up from 37.7% in the same period of 2018. Revenue and gross margin in the fourth quarter of 2019 were positively impacted by the launch of the MAX and HERO8 Black cameras in the fourth quarter of 2019 compared to the launch of the HERO7 line of cameras in the third quarter of 2018. Camera units shipped in the fourth quarter of 2019 was 1.9 million units, compared to 1.4 million units in the same period of 2018. Our fourth quarter of 2019 average selling price (defined as total revenue divided by camera units shipped) increased to $285, a7% increase year-over-year.
Our full year 2019 and fourth quarter of 2019 operating expenses decreased 9% and 3%, respectively, primarily attributable to our continued focus on cost management and the financial benefits recognized from our restructuring actions.
We returned to profitability on a GAAP and non-GAAP basis in the fourth quarter 2019 with net income of $95.8 million and $102.5 million, respectively. In addition, for 2019, our GAAP net loss improved year-over-year by $94.4 million to a net loss of $14.6 million and we returned to profitability on a non-GAAP basis with net income of $35.3 million. 2019 adjusted EBITDA improved to $72.0 million from $21.8 million in 2018.
Factors affecting performance
We believe that our future success will be dependent on many factors, including those further discussed below. While these areas represent opportunities for us, they also represent challenges and risks that we must successfully address in order to operate our business and improve our results of operations.
Driving profitability through improved efficiency, lower costs and better execution. We incurred operating losses in 2019, 2018 and 2017, however, our restructuring actions have significantly reduced our operating expenses in 2019 and 2018 resulting in a flatter, more efficient global organization that has allowed for improved communication and better alignment amongst our functional teams. If we are unable to generate adequate revenue growth, or continue to manage our expenses, we may incur significant losses in the future and may not be able to achieve profitability.
Investing in research and development and enhancing our customer experience. Our performance is significantly dependent on the investments we make in research and development, including our ability to attract and retain highly skilled and experienced research and development personnel. We expect the timing of new product releases to continue to have a significant impact on our revenue and we must continually develop and introduce innovative new cameras, mobile applications and other new offerings. We plan to further build upon our integrated mobile and cloud-based storytelling solutions, and subscription offerings. Our investments, including those for marketing and advertising, may not successfully drive increased revenue and our customers may not accept our new offerings. If we fail to innovate and enhance our brand, our products, our integrated storytelling solutions, the value proposition of our subscriptions, our market position and revenue will be adversely affected. Further, we have incurred substantial research and development expenses and if our efforts are not successful, we may not recover the value of these investments.
Growing our total addressable market globally. We continue to believe that international markets represent a significant growth opportunity for GoPro. While the total market for digital cameras has continued to decline as smartphone and tablet camera quality has improved, we continue to believe that our consumers’ differentiated use of GoPro cameras, our integrated storytelling solutions, our continued innovation of product features desired by our users, and our brand, all help support our business from many of the negative trends facing this category.
GoPro, Inc.
Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations
However, we expect that the markets in which we conduct our business will remain highly competitive as we face new product introductions from competitors. We will continue to increase our global presence through the active promotion of our brand, the creation and cultivation of regional strategic and marketing partnerships, the expansion of localized products in international markets with region-specific marketing, and an investment focus on the biggest opportunities.
Our growth also depends on expanding our total addressable market with our subscription service, GoPro Plus, and capture solutions, including MAX, which faces intense competition. If we are not successful in penetrating additional markets, we might not be able to grow revenue and we may not recognize benefits from our investment in new areas.
Marketing the improved GoPro experience to our extended community.We intend to continue investing resources in our marketing, advertising and brand management efforts. Historically, our growth has largely been fueled by the adoption of our products by people looking to self-capture images of themselves participating in exciting physical activities. Our future growth depends on continuing to reach, expand and re-engage with this core user base. We believe that consumers in our core user base in many markets are not familiar with our brand and products and believe there is an opportunity for GoPro to expand awareness through a range of advertising and promotional programs and campaigns, including through social media. In addition, we may look to expand our user base to include a broader group of consumers. Sales and marketing investments will often occur in advance of any sales benefits from these activities, and it may be difficult for us to determine if we are efficiently allocating our resources in this area.
Seasonality. Historically, we have experienced the highest levels of revenue in the fourth quarter of the year, coinciding with the holiday shopping season, particularly in the United States and Europe. While we have implemented operational changes aimed at reducing the impact of fourth quarter seasonality on full year performance, timely and effective product introductions and forecasting, whether just prior to the holiday season or otherwise, are critical to our operations and financial performance.
Components of our Results of Operations
Revenue.Our revenue is primarily comprised of product revenue, net of returns, sales incentives (including price protection), and subscription services. Revenue is derived from the sale of our cameras and accessories directly to retailers, through our network of domestic and international distributors, and through gopro.com. See Critical Accounting Policies and Estimates and Note 1 Summary of business and significant accounting policies, to the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements of this Annual Report on Form 10-K for information regarding revenue recognition.
Cost of revenue.Our cost of revenue primarily consists of product costs, including costs of contract manufacturing for production, third-party logistics and procurement costs, warranty repair costs, tooling and equipment depreciation, excess and obsolete inventory write-downs, amortization of acquired developed technology, license fees, tariffs and certain allocated costs related to our manufacturing team, facilities and personnel-related expenses.
Operating expenses.We classify our operating expenses into three categories: research and development, sales and marketing, and general and administrative.
Research and development. Our research and development expense consists primarily of personnel-related costs, including salaries, stock-based compensation and employee benefits. Research and development expense also includes consulting and outside professional services costs, materials, and allocated facilities, restructuring, depreciation and other supporting overhead expenses associated with the development of our product and service offerings.
Sales and marketing. Our sales and marketing expense consists primarily of advertising and marketing promotions of our products and services, and personnel-related costs, including salaries, stock-based compensation and employee benefits. Sales and marketing expense also includes point of purchase (POP) display expenses and related amortization, sales commissions, trade show and event costs, sponsorship costs,
GoPro, Inc.
Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations
consulting and contractor expenses, and allocated facilities, restructuring, depreciation and other supporting overhead expenses.
General and administrative.Our general and administrative expense consists primarily of personnel-related costs, including salaries, stock-based compensation and employee benefits for our finance, legal, human resources, information technology and administrative personnel. The expense also includes professional service costs related to accounting, tax, legal services, and allocated facilities, restructuring, depreciation and other supporting overhead expenses.
Results of Operations
The following table sets forth the components of our consolidated statements of operations for each of the periods presented, and each component as a percentage of revenue:
| Year ended December 31, | ||||||||||||||||||||
| (dollars in thousands) | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | |||||||||||||||||
| Revenue | $ | 1,194,651 | 100 | % | $ | 1,148,337 | 100 | % | $ | 1,179,741 | 100 | % | ||||||||
| Cost of revenue | 781,862 | 65 | 786,903 | 69 | 795,211 | 67 | ||||||||||||||
| Gross profit | 412,789 | 35 | 361,434 | 31 | 384,530 | 33 | ||||||||||||||
| Operating expenses: | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Research and development | 142,894 | 12 | 167,296 | 15 | 229,265 | 19 | ||||||||||||||
| Sales and marketing | 206,431 | 17 | 222,096 | 19 | 236,581 | 20 | ||||||||||||||
| General and administrative | 65,797 | 6 | 66,004 | 6 | 82,144 | 7 | ||||||||||||||
| Total operating expenses | 415,122 | 35 | 455,396 | 40 | 547,990 | 46 | ||||||||||||||
| Operating loss | (2,333 | ) | — | (93,962 | ) | (9 | ) | (163,460 | ) | (13 | ) | |||||||||
| Other income (expense): | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Interest expense | (19,229 | ) | (2 | ) | (18,683 | ) | (1 | ) | (13,660 | ) | (1 | ) | ||||||||
| Other income, net | 2,492 | — | 4,970 | — | 733 | — | ||||||||||||||
| Total other expense, net | (16,737 | ) | (2 | ) | (13,713 | ) | (1 | ) | (12,927 | ) | (1 | ) | ||||||||
| Loss before income taxes | (19,070 | ) | (2 | ) | (107,675 | ) | (10 | ) | (176,387 | ) | (14 | ) | ||||||||
| Income tax (benefit) expense | (4,428 | ) | (1 | ) | 1,359 | — | 6,486 | 1 | ||||||||||||
| Net loss | $ | (14,642 | ) | (1 | )% | $ | (109,034 | ) | (10 | )% | $ | (182,873 | ) | (15 | )% | |||||
GoPro, Inc.
Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations
Revenue
| (camera units and dollars in thousands, except average selling price) | Year ended December 31, | 2019 vs 2018 | 2018 vs 2017 | ||||||||||||||
| 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | % Change | % Change | |||||||||||||
| Camera units shipped | 4,260 | 4,337 | 4,303 | (2 | )% | 1 | % | ||||||||||
| Average selling price | $ | 280 | $ | 265 | $ | 274 | 6 | (3 | ) | ||||||||
| Direct channel | $ | 548,322 | $ | 551,095 | $ | 634,888 | (1 | ) | (13 | ) | |||||||
Percentage of revenue | 45.9 | % | 48.0 | % | 53.8 | % | |||||||||||
| Distribution channel | $ | 646,329 | $ | 597,242 | $ | 544,853 | 8 | 10 | |||||||||
Percentage of revenue | 54.1 | % | 52.0 | % | 46.2 | % | |||||||||||
| Total revenue | $ | 1,194,651 | $ | 1,148,337 | $ | 1,179,741 | 4 | % | (3 | )% | |||||||
| Americas | $ | 523,975 | $ | 494,797 | $ | 582,917 | 6 | % | (15 | )% | |||||||
Percentage of revenue | 43.9 | % | 43.1 | % | 49.4 | % | |||||||||||
| Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) | $ | 359,187 | $ | 366,438 | $ | 333,454 | (2 | ) | 10 | ||||||||
| Percentage of revenue | 30.0 | % | 31.9 | % | 28.3 | % | |||||||||||
| Asia and Pacific (APAC) | $ | 311,489 | $ | 287,102 | $ | 263,370 | 8 | 9 | |||||||||
| Percentage of revenue | 26.1 | % | 25.0 | % | 22.3 | % | |||||||||||
| Total revenue | $ | 1,194,651 | $ | 1,148,337 | $ | 1,179,741 | 4 | % | (3 | )% | |||||||
2019 Compared to 2018. Revenue for 2019 was up 4% year-over-year at $1.195 billion, compared to $1.148 billion in 2018, despite a $28.6 million decrease in Karma drone and drone accessory revenue, as we exited the drone business in 2018. Excluding Karma, revenue for 2019 increased 7% year-over-year. We shipped 4.3 million camera units in 2019, a 2% decrease from 2018. Our average selling price for 2019 increased 6% year-over-year to $280, primarily due to a shift of cameras sold equal to or greater than $300, which represented 90% of our camera revenue mix. Excluding Karma, our 2019 average selling price increased 8% year-over-year. Average selling price is defined as total revenue divided by camera units shipped. Year-over-year, revenue by channel has slightly shifted from direct to distribution and revenue by geography has slightly shifted from EMEA to APAC primarily due to increasing our advertising and marketing efforts in APAC and an increase in demand for our cameras in APAC. Revenue from gopro.com is included as a component of our direct channel, and represented 10%, 8% and 7% of total revenue for 2019, 2018 and 2017, respectively.
Cost of revenue and gross margin
| Year ended December 31, | 2019 vs 2018 | 2018 vs 2017 | |||||||||||||||
| (dollars in thousands) | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | % Change | % Change | ||||||||||||
| Cost of revenue | $ | 772,088 | $ | 772,136 | $ | 786,657 | — | % | (2 | )% | |||||||
| Stock-based compensation | 1,902 | 1,954 | 1,935 | (3 | ) | 1 | |||||||||||
| Acquisition-related costs | 7,818 | 11,434 | 5,985 | (32 | ) | 91 | |||||||||||
| Restructuring costs | 54 | 1,379 | 634 | (96 | ) | 118 | |||||||||||
| Total cost of revenue | $ | 781,862 | $ | 786,903 | $ | 795,211 | (1 | )% | (1 | )% | |||||||
| Gross margin | 34.6 | % | 31.5 | % | 32.6 | % | 310 bps | (110) bps | |||||||||
2019 Compared to 2018. Gross margin of 34.6% in 2019 increased from 31.5% in 2018, or 310 bps, reflecting a favorable product sales mix, 271 bps, and lower average camera costs, 131 bps, partially offset by slightly higher operational expenses, (71) bps, and higher sales incentives, (70) bps.
GoPro, Inc.
Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations
Research and development
| Year ended December 31, | 2019 vs 2018 | 2018 vs 2017 | |||||||||||||||
| (dollars in thousands) | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | % Change | % Change | ||||||||||||
| Research and development | $ | 125,142 | $ | 134,866 | $ | 191,182 | (7 | )% | (29 | )% | |||||||
| Stock-based compensation | 17,167 | 19,636 | 24,963 | (13 | ) | (21 | ) | ||||||||||
| Acquisition-related costs | — | — | 3,028 | — | (100 | ) | |||||||||||
| Restructuring costs | 585 | 12,794 | 10,092 | (95 | ) | 27 | |||||||||||
| Total research and development | $ | 142,894 | $ | 167,296 | $ | 229,265 | (15 | )% | (27 | )% | |||||||
| Percentage of revenue | 12.0 | % | 14.6 | % | 19.4 | % | |||||||||||
2019 Compared to 2018. The year-over-year decrease of $24.4 million, or 15%, in total research and development expense in 2019 compared to 2018 reflected a $12.2 million decrease in restructuring costs, a $5.6 million decrease in depreciation and other supporting overhead expenses, a $3.9 million decrease in cash-based personnel-related costs and a $2.5 million decrease in stock-based compensation.
Sales and marketing
| Year ended December 31, | 2019 vs 2018 | 2018 vs 2017 | |||||||||||||||
| (dollars in thousands) | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | % Change | % Change | ||||||||||||
| Sales and marketing | $ | 198,074 | $ | 207,346 | $ | 219,036 | (4 | )% | (5 | )% | |||||||
| Stock-based compensation | 8,043 | 9,459 | 10,498 | (15 | ) | (10 | ) | ||||||||||
| Restructuring costs | 314 | 5,291 | 7,047 | (94 | ) | (25 | ) | ||||||||||
| Total sales and marketing | $ | 206,431 | $ | 222,096 | $ | 236,581 | (7 | )% | (6 | )% | |||||||
| Percentage of revenue | 17.3 | % | 19.3 | % | 20.1 | % | |||||||||||
2019 Compared to 2018. The year-over-year decrease of $15.7 million, or 7%, in total sales and marketing expenses in 2019 compared to 2018 reflected an $8.8 million decrease in overall advertising and marketing expenses, a $5.0 million decrease in restructuring costs, a $3.9 million decrease in allocated facilities, depreciation and other supporting overhead expenses, and a $1.4 million decrease in stock-based compensation, partially offset by a $3.0 million increase in app marketplace and credit card processing fees, and a $0.6 million increase in travel related expenses.
General and administrative
| Year ended December 31, | 2019 vs 2018 | 2018 vs 2017 | |||||||||||||||
| (dollars in thousands) | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | % Change | % Change | ||||||||||||
| General and administrative | $ | 55,220 | $ | 52,865 | $ | 65,788 | 4 | % | (20 | )% | |||||||
| Stock-based compensation | 10,076 | 9,838 | 13,859 | 2 | (29 | ) | |||||||||||
| Acquisition-related costs | — | 22 | (22 | ) | (100 | ) | (200 | ) | |||||||||
| Restructuring costs | 501 | 3,279 | 2,519 | (85 | ) | 30 | |||||||||||
| Total general and administrative | $ | 65,797 | $ | 66,004 | $ | 82,144 | — | % | (20 | )% | |||||||
| Percentage of revenue | 5.5 | % | 5.7 | % | 7.0 | % | |||||||||||
2019 Compared to 2018. Total general and administrative expenses were slightly down in 2019 compared to 2018 primarily due to a $2.8 million decrease in restructuring costs partially offset by a $2.7 million increase in allocated facilities and other supporting overhead expenses.
Restructuring costs
First quarter 2018 restructuring plan. On January 2, 2018, we approved a restructuring plan to further reduce future operating expenses and better align resources around our long-term business strategy. The restructuring
GoPro, Inc.
Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations
provided for a reduction of our workforce of approximately 18%, the closure of our aerial group and the consolidation of certain leased office facilities. Under the first quarter 2018 restructuring plan, we recorded restructuring charges of $17.8 million, including $14.1 million related to severance and $3.7 million related to accelerated depreciation and other charges, which primarily relate to exiting office spaces and the closure of our aerial products business.
First quarter 2017 restructuring plan. On March 15, 2017, we approved a restructuring plan that provided for a reduction of our workforce by approximately 17% and the consolidation of certain leased office facilities. Under the first quarter 2017 restructuring plan, we recorded restructuring charges of $23.1 million, including $10.3 million related to severance and $12.8 million related to accelerated depreciation and other charges. The actions associated with the first quarter 2017 restructuring plan were substantially completed by the fourth quarter of 2017.
Fourth quarter 2016 restructuring plan. On November 29, 2016, we approved a restructuring plan that provided for a reduction in our workforce of approximately 15%, the closure of our entertainment group and the consolidation of certain leased office facilities. Under the fourth quarter 2016 restructuring plan, we recorded restructuring charges of $40.0 million, including $36.8 million related to severance and $3.2 million related to accelerated depreciation and other charges, which primarily pertain to exiting office spaces. The actions associated with the fourth quarter 2016 restructuring plan were substantially completed by March 31, 2017.
See Note 11 Restructuring charges, to the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements.
Other income (expense)
| Year ended December 31, | 2019 vs 2018 | 2018 vs 2017 | |||||||||||||||
| (dollars in thousands) | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | % Change | % Change | ||||||||||||
| Interest expense | $ | (19,229 | ) | $ | (18,683 | ) | $ | (13,660 | ) | 3 | % | 37 | % | ||||
| Other income, net | 2,492 | 4,970 | 733 | (50 | ) | 578 | |||||||||||
| Total other expense, net | $ | (16,737 | ) | $ | (13,713 | ) | $ | (12,927 | ) | 22 | % | 6 | % | ||||
2019 Compared to 2018. Total other expense, net, increased $3.0 million in 2019 compared to 2018, primarily due to a $5.0 million gain on the sale and license of intellectual property recognized in 2018, which did not recur in 2019, partially offset by a $2.4 million increase in net foreign exchange rate-based transaction gains.
Income taxes
| Year ended December 31, | 2019 vs 2018 | 2018 vs 2017 | |||||||||||||||
| (dollars in thousands) | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | % Change | % Change | ||||||||||||
| Income tax (benefit) expense | $ | (4,428 | ) | $ | 1,359 | $ | 6,486 | (426 | )% | (79 | )% | ||||||
| Effective tax rate | 23.2 | % | (1.3 | )% | (3.7 | )% | |||||||||||
2019 Compared to 2018. We recorded an income tax benefit of $4.4 million in 2019 on a pre-tax net loss of $19.1 million, which resulted in an effective tax rate of 23.2%. Our income tax benefit was primarily related to an overall decrease in losses before income taxes, a benefit from the reversal of previously accrued tax provision on uncertain tax positions that were no longer necessary due to the expiration of the statute of limitations and settlements with certain taxing jurisdictions, partially offset by the valuation allowance on United States federal and state net deferred tax assets and a shortfall tax impact from stock-based compensation. Our 2018 negative effective tax rate of 1.3% resulted primarily from a benefit related to the conclusion of an IRS audit and a benefit related to the set up and current year activity of disregarded entities (foreign branches) for United States tax purposes, partially offset by the valuation allowance on United States federal and state net deferred tax assets and a shortfall tax impact from stock-based compensation.
See Note 8 Income taxes, to the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements for additional information.
GoPro, Inc.
Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations
Quarterly results of operations
The following table sets forth our unaudited quarterly consolidated results of operations for each of the eight quarterly periods ended December 31, 2019.
| Three months ended | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| (dollars in thousands, except per share amounts) | Dec. 31, 2019 | Sept. 30, 2019 | June 30, 2019 | March 31, 2019 | Dec. 31, 2018 | Sept. 30, 2018 | June 30, 2018 | March 31, 2018 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Revenue | $ | 528,345 | $ | 131,169 | $ | 292,429 | $ | 242,708 | $ | 377,378 | $ | 285,936 | $ | 282,677 | $ | 202,346 | |||||||||||||||
| Gross profit | 201,825 | 28,432 | 102,185 | 80,347 | 142,117 | 91,032 | 83,369 | 44,916 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Operating expenses (1) | 105,725 | 99,630 | 109,132 | 100,635 | 109,150 | 112,386 | 114,205 | 119,655 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Net income (loss) | $ | 95,820 | $ | (74,810 | ) | $ | (11,287 | ) | $ | (24,365 | ) | $ | 31,671 | $ | (27,089 | ) | $ | (37,269 | ) | $ | (76,347 | ) | |||||||||
| Net income (loss) per share: | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Basic | $ | 0.65 | $ | (0.51 | ) | $ | (0.08 | ) | $ | (0.17 | ) | $ | 0.22 | $ | (0.19 | ) | $ | (0.27 | ) | $ | (0.55 | ) | |||||||||
| Diluted | $ | 0.65 | $ | (0.51 | ) | $ | (0.08 | ) | $ | (0.17 | ) | $ | 0.22 | $ | (0.19 | ) | $ | (0.27 | ) | $ | (0.55 | ) | |||||||||
(1) | Included in operating expenses were restructuring charges of $1.7 million for the quarter ended June 30, 2019, $4.0 million for the quarter ended September 30, 2018, and $16.7 million for the quarter ended March 31, 2018. |
Liquidity and Capital Resources
The following table presents selected financial information as of December 31, 2019 and 2018:
| (dollars in thousands) | December 31, 2019 | December 31, 2018 | |||||
| Cash and cash equivalents | $ | 150,301 | $ | 152,095 | |||
| Marketable securities | 14,847 | 45,417 | |||||
| Total cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities | $ | 165,148 | $ | 197,512 | |||
| Percentage of total assets | 21 | % | 28 | % | |||
Our primary source of cash is receipts from sales of our products and services. Other sources of cash are from proceeds from employee participation in the employee stock purchase plan, the exercise of employee stock options, tax refunds and facility subleases. The primary uses of cash are for inventory procurement, payroll-related expenses, general operating expenses, including advertising, marketing and office rent, purchases of property and equipment and other costs of revenue.
As of December 31, 2019, our cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities of $165.1 million reflected a decrease of $32.4 million, or 16.4%, compared to December 31, 2018. The change was primarily due to an increase in accounts receivable driven by the timing of sales in the fourth quarter and an increase in inventory due to our production delay, partially offset by positive operating cash (net loss of $14.6 million, offset by non-cash expenses of $78.0 million). As of December 31, 2019, $23.9 million of cash was held by our foreign subsidiaries.
Convertible Notes
In April 2017, we issued $175.0 million aggregate principal amount of 3.50% Convertible Senior Notes in a private placement to purchasers for resale to qualified institutional buyers. The Notes mature on April 15, 2022, unless earlier repurchased or converted into shares of Class A common stock subject to certain conditions. The Notes are convertible into cash, shares of the Class A common stock, or a combination thereof, at our election, at an initial conversion rate of 94.0071 shares of common stock per $1,000 principal amount of the Notes, which is equivalent to an initial conversion price of approximately $10.64 per share of common stock, subject to adjustment. We pay interest on the Notes semi-annually in arrears on April 15 and October 15 of each year. Proceeds received from the issuance of the Notes were allocated between a liability component (long-term debt) and an equity component (additional paid-in capital). The fair value of the liability component was measured using rates determined for similar debt instruments without a conversion feature.
GoPro, Inc.
Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations
In connection with the Notes offering, we entered into a prepaid forward stock repurchase transaction agreement (Prepaid Forward) with a financial institution. Pursuant to the Prepaid Forward, we used approximately $78.0 million of the proceeds from the offering of the Notes to pay the prepayment amount. The aggregate number of shares of our Class A common stock underlying the Prepaid Forward is approximately 9.2 million shares. The expiration date for the Prepaid Forward is April 15, 2022, although it may be settled earlier in whole or in part. Upon settlement of the Prepaid Forward, at expiration or upon any early settlement, the forward counterparty will deliver to us the number of shares of Class A common stock underlying the Prepaid Forward or the portion thereof being settled early. The shares purchased under the Prepaid Forward were treated as treasury stock on the consolidated balance sheet (and not outstanding for purposes of the calculation of basic and diluted income (loss) per share), but remain outstanding for corporate law purposes, including for purposes of any future stockholders’ votes, until the forward counterparty delivers the shares underlying the Prepaid Forward to us. The net proceeds from the Convertible Senior Notes offering of approximately $91 million were used for general corporate purposes.
Liquidity
We believe, based on our most current projections, that our cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities, and amounts available under our credit facility, will be sufficient to address our working capital needs, capital expenditures, outstanding commitments and other liquidity requirements for 12 months from the issuance of these financial statements.
We expect that operating expenses and inventory purchases will constitute a material use of our cash balances. We intend to continue to manage our operating activities in line with our existing cash and available financial resources.
| • | In March 2016, we entered into a credit agreement with a syndicate of banks that provided for a secured revolving credit facility under which we could borrow up to an aggregate of $250.0 million. Our credit facility terminates in March 2021. (See Note 4 Financing Arrangements, in the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements for additional information.) |
We have completed acquisitions in the past and we may evaluate additional possible acquisitions of, or strategic investments in, businesses, products and technologies that are complementary to our business, which may require the use of cash.
In the future, we may require additional funding to respond to business opportunities, challenges or unforeseen circumstances. If we are unable to obtain adequate financing under our credit facility, or other sources, when we require it, our ability to grow or support our business and to respond to business challenges could be significantly limited. In the event additional financing is required from outside sources, we may not be able to raise it on terms acceptable to us or at all.
Summary of Cash Flow
The following table summarizes our cash flows for the periods indicated:
| Year ended December 31, | 2019 vs 2018 | 2018 vs 2017 | |||||||||||||||
| (in thousands) | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | % Change | % Change | ||||||||||||
| Net cash provided by (used in): | |||||||||||||||||
| Operating activities | $ | (24,444 | ) | $ | (42,434 | ) | $ | (36,853 | ) | (42 | )% | 15 | % | ||||
| Investing activities | $ | 22,771 | $ | (6,235 | ) | $ | (43,097 | ) | (465 | )% | (86 | )% | |||||
| Financing activities | $ | (1,044 | ) | $ | (1,481 | ) | $ | 88,594 | (30 | )% | (102 | )% | |||||
Cash flows from operating activities
Cash used in operating activities of $24.4 million was primarily attributable to a net cash outflow of $87.8 million from changes in operating assets and liabilities and a net loss of $14.6 million, offset by non-cash expenses of $78.0 million. Cash outflows related to operating assets and liabilities consisted primarily of a $71.3 million increase in accounts receivable and a $27.8 million increase in inventory, partially offset by a $7.5 million
GoPro, Inc.
Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations
decrease in prepaid expenses and other assets, and a $3.2 million increase in accounts payable and other liabilities.
Cash flows from investing activities
Our primary investing activities consisted of purchases, maturities and sales of marketable securities, and purchases of property and equipment. Cash provided by investing activities was $22.8 million resulting from maturities and sales of marketable securities of $74.8 million, partially offset by purchases of marketable securities of $43.6 million and net purchases of property and equipment of $8.3 million.
Cash flows from financing activities
Our primary financing activities consisted of the issuance of equity securities under our common stock plans. Cash used in financing activities was $1.0 million resulting from $6.6 million in tax payments for net RSU settlements, partially offset by $5.6 million received from stock purchases made through our employee stock purchase plan and employee stock option exercises.
Off-balance sheet arrangements
During the periods presented, we did not have any relationships with unconsolidated organizations or financial partnerships, such as structured finance or special purpose entities, which would have been established for the purpose of facilitating off-balance sheet arrangements or other contractually narrow or limited purposes.
Contractual Obligations
As of December 31, 2019, our total undiscounted future expected payment obligations under our agreements with terms longer than one year were approximately $303.6 million, including $175.0 million for our Convertible Senior Notes, $88.8 million for operating leases, $3.2 million for sponsorship agreements and $36.6 million for other multi-year agreements. See Note 4 Financing Arrangements, for a discussion regarding our Convertible Senior Notes and Note 9 Commitments, contingencies and guarantees, for a discussion regarding facility leases and other contractual commitments in the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements.
Indemnifications
We have entered into indemnification agreements with our directors and executive officers which require us to indemnify our directors and executive officers against liabilities that may arise by reason of their status or service. In addition, in the normal course of business, we enter into agreements that contain a variety of representations and warranties and provide for general indemnification. It is not possible to determine the maximum potential amount under these indemnification agreements due to our limited history with prior indemnification claims and the unique facts and circumstances involved in each particular agreement. To date, the payments we have made under these agreements have not had a material effect on our operating results, financial position or cash flows. However, we may record charges in the future as a result of these indemnification agreements.
Critical Accounting Policies and Estimates
We prepare our consolidated financial statements in accordance with GAAP. The preparation of these consolidated financial statements requires us to make estimates, assumptions and judgments that can significantly impact the amounts we report as assets, liabilities, revenue, costs and expenses and the related disclosures. Note 1Summary of business and significant accounting policies, to the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements of this Annual Report on Form 10-K describes the significant accounting policies and methods used in the preparation of the consolidated financial statements. We base our estimates on historical experience and other assumptions that we believe are reasonable under the circumstances. Our actual results could differ significantly from these estimates. We believe that the accounting policies discussed below are critical to understanding our historical and future performance as these policies involve a greater degree of judgment and complexity. Our senior management has reviewed these critical accounting policies and related disclosures with the audit committee of our board of directors.
GoPro, Inc.
Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations
Revenue recognition
We derive substantially all of our revenue from the sale of cameras, mounts and accessories, and subscription services. We recognize revenue when control of the promised goods or services is transferred to customers, in an amount that reflects the consideration we expect to be entitled to in exchange for those goods or services. The transaction price we expect to be entitled to is primarily comprised of product revenue, net of returns and variable consideration, including sales incentives provided to customers.
For most of our revenue, revenue is recognized at the time the product is delivered and when collection is deemed probable. For the Company’s subscription services, revenue is recognized on a ratable basis over the subscription term, with payments received in advanced of services being rendered recorded in deferred revenue. For customers who purchase products directly from gopro.com, we retain a portion of the risk of loss on these sales during transit, which are accounted for as fulfillment costs.
Our standard terms and conditions for non-web based sales do not allow for product returns other than under warranty. However, we grant limited rights to return product for certain large retailers and distributors. Estimates of expected future product returns are recognized at the time of sale based on analyses of historical return trends by customer class and other factors. An estimated return liability along with a right to recover assets are recorded for future product returns. Return trends are influenced by product life cycles, new product introductions, market acceptance of products, product sell-through, the type of customer, seasonality and other factors. Return rates may fluctuate over time, but are sufficiently predictable to allow us to estimate expected future product returns. Actual returns in any future period could differ from our estimates, which could impact the revenue that we report.
Our camera sales contain multiple performance obligations that generally include the following three separate obligations: a) a hardware component (camera and/or accessories) and the embedded firmware essential to the functionality of the hardware delivered at the time of sale, b) the implicit right to our downloadable free apps and software solutions, and c) the implied right for the customer to receive post contract support after the initial sale (PCS). PCS includes the right to receive, on a when and if available basis, future unspecified firmware upgrades and features as well as bug fixes, and email and telephone support. Judgment is required to properly identify the accounting units of multiple performance obligations and to determine the manner in which revenue should be allocated among the obligations. We allocate the transaction price to PCS based on a cost-plus method. The transaction price is allocated to the remaining performance obligations on a residual value method. Our process to allocate the transaction price considers multiple factors that may vary over time depending upon the unique facts and circumstances related to each deliverable, including: the level of support provided to customers, estimated costs to provide our support, the amount of time and cost that is allocated to our efforts to develop the undelivered elements, and market trends in the pricing for similar offerings. While changes in the allocation of the transaction price among the performance obligations will not affect the amount of total revenue ultimately recognized for a particular sales arrangement, any material changes in these allocations could impact the timing of revenue recognition, which could have a material effect on our financial condition and results of operations.
We provide our customers with sales incentives through various programs, including cooperative advertising, price protection, marketing development funds and other incentives. Sales incentives are considered to be variable consideration, which we estimate and record as a reduction to revenue at the date of sale. Sales incentives are influenced by historical experience, product sell-through and other factors. Actual sales incentives and their impact on reported revenue could differ from our estimates.
Inventory valuation
Inventory consists of finished goods and component parts, and is stated at the lower of cost or net realizable value on a first-in, first-out basis. Our inventory balances were $144.2 million and $116.5 million as of December 31, 2019 and 2018, respectively. Our assessment of market value requires the use of estimates regarding the net realizable value of our inventory balances, including an assessment of excess or obsolete inventory. We determine excess or obsolete inventory based on multiple factors, including an estimate of the future demand for our products within a specified time horizon, generally 12 months, product life cycle status, product development plans and current sales levels.
GoPro, Inc.
Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations
Warranty
We generally provide a 12-month warranty coverage on all of our products except in the EU where we provide a 24-month warranty. The Company also offers extended warranty programs for a fee. Our standard warranty provides for repair or replacement of the associated products during the warranty period. We establish a liability for estimated product warranty costs at the time product revenue is recognized. The warranty obligation is affected by product failure rates and the related use of materials, labor costs and freight incurred in correcting any product failure. Should actual product failure rates, use of materials or other costs differ from our estimates, additional warranty liabilities could be required, which could materially affect our results of operations.
Income taxes
We are subject to income taxes in the United States and multiple foreign jurisdictions. Our effective tax rates differ from the United States federal statutory rate, primarily due to changes in our valuation allowance, the effect of non-United States operations, deductible and non-deductible stock-based compensation expense, state taxes, federal research and development tax credits and other adjustments. Our effective tax rate was 23.2%, a negative 1.3% and a negative 3.7% in 2019, 2018 and 2017, respectively. The calculation of our provision for income taxes involves the use of estimates, assumptions and judgments while taking into account current tax laws, our interpretation of current tax laws and possible outcomes of future tax audits. We review our tax positions quarterly and adjust the balances as new information becomes available. Our income tax rate is materially affected by the tax rates that apply to our foreign earnings.
Uncertain tax positions. We recognize tax benefits from uncertain tax positions only if it is more likely than not that the tax position will be sustained on examination by the taxing authorities, based on the technical merits of the position. We file annual income tax returns in multiple taxing jurisdictions around the world and a number of years may elapse before an uncertain tax position is audited by the relevant tax authorities and finally resolved. We have established reserves to address potential exposures related to tax positions that could be challenged by tax authorities. While it is often difficult to predict the final outcome or the timing of resolution of any particular uncertain tax position, we believe that our reserves reflect the more likely outcome.
Our future effective tax rates could be adversely affected if actual earnings are different than our estimates, by changes in the valuation of our deferred tax assets or liabilities, outcomes resulting from income tax examinations, or by changes or interpretations in tax laws, regulations or accounting principles.
Goodwill and acquired intangible assets
When we acquire a business, we allocate the purchase price to the net tangible and identifiable intangible assets, with the residual of the purchase price recorded as goodwill. The determination of the fair value of the intangible assets acquired involves significant judgments and estimates. These judgments can include, but are not limited to, the cash flows that an asset is expected to generate in the future, technology obsolescence, and the appropriate weighted-average cost of capital. Our estimate of the fair value of certain assets may differ materially from that determined by others who use different assumptions or utilize different business models.
We perform an annual assessment of our goodwill during the fourth quarter to determine if any events or circumstances exist, such as an adverse change in business climate or a decline in the overall industry demand, that would indicate that it is more likely than not that the fair value of our single reporting unit would be reduced below its carrying amount. If further testing is deemed necessary, we perform a two-step process. The first step involves comparing the fair value of our reporting unit to its carrying value. The second step, if necessary, measures the amount of impairment, if any, by comparing the carrying value of the goodwill to its implied fair value. As of December 31, 2019, we determined that no impairment of the carrying value of goodwill was required.
Recent Accounting Pronouncements
Refer to Recent Accounting Pronouncements in Note 1 Summary of business and significant accounting policies, to Consolidated Financial Statements included in Part II, Item 8 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
GoPro, Inc.
Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations
Non-GAAP Financial Measures
We report net income (loss) and diluted net income (loss) per share in accordance with United States generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) and on a non-GAAP basis. Additionally, we report non-GAAP adjusted EBITDA. We use non-GAAP financial measures to help us understand and evaluate our core operating performance and trends, to prepare and approve our annual budget, and to develop short-term and long-term operational plans. Our management uses, and believes that investors benefit from referring to these non-GAAP financial measures in assessing our operating results. These non-GAAP financial measures should not be considered in isolation from, or as an alternative to, the measures prepared in accordance with GAAP, and are not based on any comprehensive set of accounting rules or principles. We believe that these non-GAAP measures, when read in conjunction with our GAAP financials, provide useful information to investors by facilitating:
the comparability of our on-going operating results over the periods presented;
the ability to identify trends in our underlying business; and
the comparison of our operating results against analyst financial models and operating results of other public companies that supplement their GAAP results with non-GAAP financial measures.
These non-GAAP financial measures have limitations in that they do not reflect all of the amounts associated with our results of operations as determined in accordance with GAAP. Some of these limitations are:
adjusted EBITDA does not reflect tax payments that reduce cash available to us;
adjusted EBITDA excludes depreciation and amortization and, although these are non-cash charges, the property and equipment being depreciated and amortized often will have to be replaced in the future, and adjusted EBITDA does not reflect any cash capital expenditure requirements for such replacements;
adjusted EBITDA excludes the amortization of POP display assets because it is a non-cash charge, and is treated similarly to depreciation of property and equipment and amortization of acquired intangible assets;
adjusted EBITDA and non-GAAP net income (loss) exclude the impairment of intangible assets because it is a non-cash charge that is inconsistent in amount and frequency;
adjusted EBITDA and non-GAAP net income (loss) exclude restructuring and other related costs which primarily include severance-related costs, stock-based compensation expenses, facilities consolidation charges recorded in connection with restructuring actions announced in the fourth quarter of 2016, first quarter of 2017 and first quarter of 2018, and the related ongoing operating lease cost of those facilities recorded under ASC 842. These expenses do not reflect expected future operating expenses and do not contribute to a meaningful evaluation of current operating performance or comparisons to the operating performance in other periods;
adjusted EBITDA and non-GAAP net income (loss) exclude stock-based compensation expense related to equity awards granted primarily to our workforce. We exclude stock-based compensation expense because we believe that the non-GAAP financial measures excluding this item provide meaningful supplemental information regarding operational performance. In particular, we note that companies calculate stock-based compensation expense for the variety of award types that they employ using different valuation methodologies and subjective assumptions. These non-cash charges are not factored into our internal evaluation of net income (loss) as we believe their inclusion would hinder our ability to assess core operational performance;
non-GAAP net income (loss) excludes acquisition-related costs including the amortization of acquired intangible assets (primarily consisting of acquired technology), the impairment of acquired intangible assets (if applicable), as well as third-party transaction costs incurred for legal and other professional services. These costs are not factored into our evaluation of potential acquisitions, or of our performance after completion of the acquisitions, because these costs are not related to our core operating performance or reflective of ongoing operating results in the period, and the frequency and amount of such costs are inconsistent and vary significantly based on the timing and magnitude of our acquisition transactions and the maturities of the businesses being acquired. Although we exclude the amortization of acquired intangible assets from our non-
GoPro, Inc.
Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations
GAAP net income (loss), management believes that it is important for investors to understand that such intangible assets were recorded as part of purchase accounting and contribute to revenue generation;
non-GAAP net income (loss) excludes non-cash interest expense. In connection with the issuance of the Convertible Senior Notes in April 2017, we are required to recognize non-cash interest expense in accordance with the authoritative accounting guidance for convertible debt that may be settled in cash;
non-GAAP net income (loss) excludes a gain on the sale and license of intellectual property. This gain is not related to our core operating performance or reflective of ongoing operating results in the period, and the frequency and amount of such gains are inconsistent;
non-GAAP net income (loss) includes income tax adjustments. We utilize a cash-based non-GAAP tax expense approach (based upon expected annual cash payments for income taxes) for evaluating operating performance as well as for planning and forecasting purposes. This non-GAAP tax approach eliminates the effects of period specific items, which can vary in size and frequency and does not necessarily reflect our long-term operations. Historically, we computed a non-GAAP tax rate based on non-GAAP pre-tax income on a quarterly basis, which considered the income tax effects of the adjustments above; and
other companies may calculate these non-GAAP financial measures differently than we do, limiting their usefulness as comparative measures.
The following tables present a reconciliation of net income (loss) to adjusted EBITDA:
| Three months ended December 31, | |||||||
| (in thousands) | 2019 | 2018 | |||||
| Net income | $ | 95,820 | $ | 31,671 | |||
| Income tax (benefit) expense | (3,928 | ) | 1,655 | ||||
| Interest expense, net | 5,032 | 4,470 | |||||
| Depreciation and amortization | 6,445 | 7,290 | |||||
| POP display amortization | 1,666 | 2,788 | |||||
| Stock-based compensation | 7,028 | 9,716 | |||||
| Restructuring and other costs | 29 | 1,217 | |||||
| Adjusted EBITDA | $ | 112,092 | $ | 58,807 | |||
| Year ended December 31, | |||||||||||||||||||
| (in thousands) | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | ||||||||||||||
| Net income (loss) | $ | (14,642 | ) | $ | (109,034 | ) | $ | (182,873 | ) | $ | (419,003 | ) | $ | 36,131 | |||||
| Income tax (benefit) expense | (4,428 | ) | 1,359 | 6,486 | 43,829 | 16,454 | |||||||||||||
| Interest expense | 17,872 | 17,278 | 12,804 | 1,401 | 234 | ||||||||||||||
| Depreciation and amortization | 26,268 | 35,063 | 41,478 | 41,639 | 28,981 | ||||||||||||||
| POP display amortization | 7,504 | 13,482 | 19,190 | 19,623 | 16,829 | ||||||||||||||
| Stock-based compensation | 37,188 | 40,887 | 51,255 | 69,527 | 80,680 | ||||||||||||||
| Impairment of intangible assets | — | — | — | 7,088 | — | ||||||||||||||
| Restructuring costs | 2,196 | 22,743 | 20,292 | 43,089 | — | ||||||||||||||
| Adjusted EBITDA | $ | 71,958 | $ | 21,778 | $ | (31,368 | ) | $ | (192,807 | ) | $ | 179,309 | |||||||
GoPro, Inc.
Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations
The following tables present a reconciliation of net income (loss) to non-GAAP net income (loss):
| Three months ended December 31, | |||||||
| (in thousands, except per share data) | 2019 | 2018 | |||||
| Net income | $ | 95,820 | $ | 31,671 | |||
| Stock-based compensation | 7,028 | 9,716 | |||||
| Acquisition-related costs | 1,864 | 2,101 | |||||
| Restructuring and other costs | 29 | 1,217 | |||||
| Non-cash interest expense | 2,354 | 2,124 | |||||
| Gain on sale and license of intellectual property | — | (5,000 | ) | ||||
| Income tax adjustments | (4,597 | ) | 527 | ||||
| Non-GAAP net income | $ | 102,498 | $ | 42,356 | |||
| GAAP diluted net income per share | $ | 0.65 | $ | 0.22 | |||
| Non-GAAP diluted net income per share | $ | 0.70 | $ | 0.30 | |||
| Shares for diluted net income per share | 147,052 | 143,401 | |||||
| Year ended December 31, | |||||||||||||||||||
| (in thousands) | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | ||||||||||||||
| Net income (loss) | $ | (14,642 | ) | $ | (109,034 | ) | $ | (182,873 | ) | $ | (419,003 | ) | $ | 36,131 | |||||
| Stock-based compensation | 37,188 | 40,887 | 51,255 | 69,527 | 80,680 | ||||||||||||||
| Acquisition-related costs | 7,818 | 11,456 | 8,991 | 17,346 | 5,370 | ||||||||||||||
| Restructuring costs | 2,196 | 22,743 | 20,292 | 43,089 | — | ||||||||||||||
| Non-cash interest expense | 8,987 | 8,112 | 5,345 | — | — | ||||||||||||||
| Gain on sale and license of intellectual property | — | (5,000 | ) | — | — | — | |||||||||||||
Income tax adjustments (1) | (6,292 | ) | (1,073 | ) | 1,123 | 87,794 | (10,617 | ) | |||||||||||
| Non-GAAP net income (loss) | $ | 35,255 | $ | (31,909 | ) | $ | (95,867 | ) | $ | (201,247 | ) | $ | 111,564 | ||||||
| GAAP diluted net income (loss) per share | $ | (0.10 | ) | $ | (0.78 | ) | $ | (1.32 | ) | $ | (3.01 | ) | $ | 0.25 | |||||
| Non-GAAP diluted net income (loss) per share | $ | 0.24 | $ | (0.23 | ) | $ | (0.69 | ) | $ | (1.44 | ) | $ | 0.76 | ||||||
| GAAP shares for diluted net income (loss) per share | 144,891 | 139,495 | 138,056 | 139,425 | 146,486 | ||||||||||||||
| Add: effect of dilutive shares | 1,580 | — | — | — | — | ||||||||||||||
| Non-GAAP shares for diluted net income (loss) per share | 146,471 | 139,495 | 138,056 | 139,425 | 146,486 | ||||||||||||||
(1) | Beginning in the first quarter of 2017, we implemented a cash-based non-GAAP expense approach (based upon expected annual cash payments for income taxes) for evaluating operating performance as well as for planning and forecasting purposes. This non-GAAP approach eliminates the effects of period specific items, which can vary in size and frequency and does not necessarily reflect our long-term operations. Historically, we computed a non-GAAP tax rate based on non-GAAP pre-tax income on a quarterly basis, which considered the income tax effects of the adjustments above. |
GoPro, Inc.
Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations
Item 7A. Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures about Market Risk
We are exposed to market risks in the ordinary course of our business. These risks primarily include foreign currency and interest rate risks as follows:
Foreign currency risk. To date, the majority of our product sales and inventory purchases have been denominated in U.S. dollars. We therefore have had insignificant foreign currency risk associated with these two activities. The functional currency of all of our entities is the U.S. dollar. Our operations outside of the United States hold foreign denominated cash balances and incur a majority of their operating expenses in foreign currencies, principally the Euro, British Pound, Australian Dollar, Japanese Yen and Chinese Yuan. Our results of operations and cash flows are, therefore, subject to fluctuations due to changes in foreign currency exchange rates. However, we believe that the exposure to foreign currency fluctuation from operating expenses is immaterial at this time as the related costs do not constitute a significant portion of our total expenses. As we expand our operations, if foreign currency exchange rates become volatile, or if foreign currency held in our foreign entities increases, our exposure to foreign currency risk could become more significant. To date, we have not entered into any material foreign currency exchange contracts. For assets and liabilities denominated in other currencies, we do not believe that the effects of a 10% shift in exchange rates between those currencies and the U.S. dollar would have a material effect on our results of operations from such a shift.
Interest rate risk. Our exposure to market risk for changes in interest rates primarily relates to our cash and cash equivalents, and marketable securities. Our cash equivalents and marketable securities are comprised primarily of money market funds, commercial paper, U.S. treasury securities and corporate debt securities. The primary objectives of our investment activities are to preserve principal and provide liquidity without significantly increasing risk. Our cash and cash equivalents are held for working capital purposes. We do not enter into investments for trading or speculative purposes. Due to the relatively short-term nature of our investment portfolio, we do not believe that an immediate 10% shift in interest rates would have a material effect on the fair value of our investment portfolio.
The fair value of our Senior Convertible Notes is subject to interest rate risk, market risk and other factors due to the convertible feature. The fair value of the Notes will generally increase as interest rates fall and decrease as interest rates rise. In addition, the fair value of the Notes will generally increase as our Class A common stock price increases and will generally decrease as the common stock price declines. The interest and market value changes affect the fair value of the Notes but do not impact our financial position, cash flows or results of operations due to the fixed nature of the debt obligation.
Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data
GoPro, Inc.
Index to consolidated financial statements
The supplementary financial information required by this Item 8, is included in Part II, Item 7 of the Annual Report on Form 10-K under the caption "Quarterly Results of Operations," which is incorporated herein by reference.
Report of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm
To theBoard of Directors and Stockholders of GoPro, Inc.
Opinions on the Financial Statements and Internal Control over Financial Reporting
We have audited the accompanying consolidated balance sheets of GoPro, Inc. and its subsidiaries (the “Company”) as of December 31, 2019 and 2018, and the related consolidated statements of operations, of redeemable convertible preferred stock and stockholders’ equity (deficit) and of cash flows present fairly, in all material respects, the financial position of GoPro, Inc. and its subsidiaries at December 31, 2016 and December 31, 2015, and the results of their operations and their cash flows for each of the three years in the period ended December 31, 20162019, including the related notes and financial statement schedule listed in the accompanying index (collectively referred to as the “consolidated financial statements”). We also have audited the Company's internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2019, based on criteria established in Internal Control - Integrated Framework (2013) issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (COSO).
In our opinion, the consolidated financial statements referred to above present fairly, in all material respects, the financial position of the Company as of December 31, 2019 and 2018, and the results of its operations and its cash flows for each of the three years in the period ended December 31, 2019 in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America. In addition, in our opinion, the financial statement schedule listed in the accompanying index presents fairly, in all material respects, the information set forth therein when read in conjunction with the related consolidated financial statements. Also in our opinion, the Company maintained, in all material respects, effective internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2016,2019, based on criteria established in Internal Control - Integrated Framework (2013) issued by the CommitteeCOSO.
Changes in Accounting Principles
As discussed in Note 1 to the consolidated financial statements, the Company changed the manner in which it accounts for leases in 2019 and the manner in which it accounts for revenue from contracts with customers and the manner in which it accounts for the tax consequences of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (COSO). intra-entity asset transfers in 2018.
Basis for Opinions
The Company's management is responsible for these consolidated financial statements, and financial statement schedule, for maintaining effective internal control over financial reporting, and for its assessment of the effectiveness of internal control over financial reporting, included in Management's AnnualManagement’s Report on Internal Control Overover Financial Reporting appearing under Item 9A. Our responsibility is to express opinions on thesethe Company’s consolidated financial statements on the financial statement schedule, and on the Company's internal control over financial reporting based on our audits (which were integrated auditsaudits. We are a public accounting firm registered with the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States) (PCAOB) and are required to be independent with respect to the Company in 2016accordance with the U.S. federal securities laws and 2015). the applicable rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission and the PCAOB.
We conducted our audits in accordance with the standards of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States).PCAOB. Those standards require that we plan and perform the audits to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the consolidated financial statements are free of material misstatement, whether due to error or fraud, and whether effective internal control over financial reporting was maintained in all material respects.
Our audits of the consolidated financial statements included performing procedures to assess the risks of material misstatement of the consolidated financial statements, whether due to error or fraud, and performing procedures that respond to those risks. Such procedures included examining, on a test basis, evidence supportingregarding the amounts and disclosures in the consolidated financial statements, assessingstatements. Our audits also included evaluating the accounting principles used and significant estimates made by management, andas well as evaluating the overall presentation of the consolidated financial statement presentation.statements. Our audit of internal control over financial reporting included obtaining an understanding of internal control over financial reporting, assessing the risk that a material weakness exists, and testing and evaluating the design and operating effectiveness of internal control based on the assessed risk. Our audits also included performing such other procedures as we considered necessary in the circumstances. We believe that our audits provide a reasonable basis for our opinions.
Definition and Limitations of Internal Control over Financial Reporting
A company’s internal control over financial reporting is a process designed to provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of financial reporting and the preparation of financial statements for external purposes in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles. A company’s internal control over financial reporting includes those policies and procedures that (i) pertain to the maintenance of records that, in reasonable detail, accurately and fairly reflect the transactions and dispositions of the assets of the company; (ii) provide reasonable assurance that transactions are recorded as necessary to permit preparation of financial statements in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles, and that receipts and expenditures of the company are being made only in accordance with authorizations of management and directors of the company; and (iii) provide reasonable assurance regarding prevention or timely detection of unauthorized acquisition, use, or disposition of the company’s assets that could have a material effect on the financial statements.
Because of its inherent limitations, internal control over financial reporting may not prevent or detect misstatements. Also, projections of any evaluation of effectiveness to future periods are subject to the risk that controls may become inadequate because of changes in conditions, or that the degree of compliance with the policies or procedures may deteriorate.
Critical Audit Matters
The critical audit matter communicated below is a matter arising from the current period audit of the consolidated financial statements that was communicated or required to be communicated to the audit committee and that (i) relates to accounts or disclosures that are material to the consolidated financial statements and (ii) involved our especially challenging, subjective, or complex judgments. The communication of critical audit matters does not alter in any way our opinion on the consolidated financial statements, taken as a whole, and we are not, by communicating the critical audit matter below, providing a separate opinion on the critical audit matter or on the accounts or disclosures to which it relates.
Sales Incentives
As described in Notes 1 and 3 to the consolidated financial statements, the Company offers sales incentives through various programs, including cooperative advertising, price protection, marketing development funds and other incentives. The Company has accrued $39 million of sales incentives as of December 31, 2019. Sales incentives are considered to be variable consideration, which management estimates and records as a reduction to revenue at the date of sale. Management estimates sales incentives based on historical experience, product sell-through and other factors.
The principal considerations for our determination that performing procedures relating to sales incentives is a critical audit matter are that the estimate involves significant judgment by management in determining the estimated sales incentives. This in turn led to significant audit effort in performing audit procedures relating to management’s estimate, which is based on historical experience, product sell-through and other factors and a high degree of auditor judgment and subjectivity in evaluating audit evidence obtained related to the estimate.
Addressing the matter involved performing procedures and evaluating audit evidence in connection with forming our overall opinion on the consolidated financial statements. These procedures included testing the effectiveness of controls relating to the completeness, accuracy, and valuation of estimated sales incentives. These procedures also included, among others, evaluating management’s process for developing the estimate, evaluating the completeness and accuracy of management’s assumptions against approved sales incentive plans, customer sales incentive spending details, and estimated future demand, and testing subsequent events to compare certain transactions occurring after December 31, 2019 against the accrued sales incentives as of December 31, 2019.
/s/ PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP
San Jose, California
February 16, 201714, 2020
We have served as the Company’s auditor since 2011.
GoPro, Inc.
Consolidated Balance Sheets
| (in thousands, except par values) | December 31, 2016 | December 31, 2015 | December 31, 2019 | December 31, 2018 | ||||||||||
| Assets | ||||||||||||||
| Current assets: | ||||||||||||||
| Cash and cash equivalents | $ | 192,114 | $ | 279,672 | $ | 150,301 | $ | 152,095 | ||||||
| Marketable securities | 25,839 | 194,386 | 14,847 | 45,417 | ||||||||||
| Accounts receivable, net | 164,553 | 145,692 | 200,634 | 129,216 | ||||||||||
| Inventory | 167,192 | 188,232 | 144,236 | 116,458 | ||||||||||
| Prepaid expenses and other current assets | 38,115 | 25,261 | 25,958 | 30,887 | ||||||||||
| Total current assets | 587,813 | 833,243 | 535,976 | 474,073 | ||||||||||
| Property and equipment, net | 76,509 | 70,050 | 36,539 | 46,567 | ||||||||||
| Operating lease right-of-use assets | 53,121 | — | ||||||||||||
| Intangible assets, net | 33,530 | 31,027 | 5,247 | 13,065 | ||||||||||
| Goodwill | 146,459 | 57,095 | 146,459 | 146,459 | ||||||||||
| Other long-term assets | 78,329 | 111,561 | 15,461 | 18,195 | ||||||||||
| Total assets | $ | 922,640 | $ | 1,102,976 | $ | 792,803 | $ | 698,359 | ||||||
| Liabilities and Stockholders' Equity | ||||||||||||||
| Liabilities and Stockholders’ Equity | ||||||||||||||
| Current liabilities: | ||||||||||||||
| Accounts payable | $ | 205,028 | $ | 89,989 | $ | 160,695 | $ | 148,478 | ||||||
| Accrued liabilities | 211,323 | 192,446 | ||||||||||||
| Accrued expenses and other current liabilities | 141,790 | 135,892 | ||||||||||||
| Short-term operating lease liabilities | 9,099 | — | ||||||||||||
| Deferred revenue | 14,388 | 12,742 | 15,467 | 15,129 | ||||||||||
| Total current liabilities | 430,739 | 295,177 | 327,051 | 299,499 | ||||||||||
| Long-term taxes payable | 26,386 | 21,770 | 13,726 | 19,553 | ||||||||||
| Long-term debt | 148,810 | 138,992 | ||||||||||||
| Long-term operating lease liabilities | 62,961 | — | ||||||||||||
| Other long-term liabilities | 18,570 | 13,996 | 6,726 | 28,203 | ||||||||||
| Total liabilities | 475,695 | 330,943 | 559,274 | 486,247 | ||||||||||
| Commitments, contingencies and guarantees (Note 11) | ||||||||||||||
| Commitments, contingencies and guarantees (Note 9) | ||||||||||||||
| Stockholders’ equity: | ||||||||||||||
| Preferred stock, $0.0001 par value, 5,000 shares authorized; none issued | — | — | — | — | ||||||||||
| Common stock and additional paid-in capital, $0.0001 par value, 500,000 Class A shares authorized,104,647 and 100,596 shares issued and outstanding, respectively; 150,000 Class B shares authorized, 36,712 and 36,005 shares issued and outstanding, respectively | 757,226 | 663,311 | ||||||||||||
| Treasury stock, at cost, 1,545 and 1,545 shares, respectively | (35,613 | ) | (35,613 | ) | ||||||||||
| Retained earnings (accumulated deficit) | (274,668 | ) | 144,335 | |||||||||||
| Common stock and additional paid-in capital, $0.0001 par value, 500,000 Class A shares authorized, 117,922 and 105,170 shares issued and outstanding, respectively; 150,000 Class B shares authorized, 28,897 and 35,897 shares issued and outstanding, respectively | 930,875 | 894,755 | ||||||||||||
| Treasury stock, at cost, 10,710 and 10,710 shares, respectively | (113,613 | ) | (113,613 | ) | ||||||||||
| Accumulated deficit | (583,733 | ) | (569,030 | ) | ||||||||||
| Total stockholders’ equity | 446,945 | 772,033 | 233,529 | 212,112 | ||||||||||
| Total liabilities and stockholders’ equity | $ | 922,640 | $ | 1,102,976 | $ | 792,803 | $ | 698,359 | ||||||