GoPro to Sell $800 Million in Secondary Offering

November 10, 2014 by Paul Ausick

GoPro ImageWearable camera maker GoPro Inc. (NASDAQ: GPRO) filed a Form S-1 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Monday morning to sell up to $800 million in class A common stock. The company plans to offer $100 million in new shares, and the remaining amount will be offered by selling shareholders.

In to the filing, GoPro said:

The principal purposes of this offering are to raise additional capital, facilitate an orderly distribution of shares for the selling stockholders in this offering and increase our public float. We expect to use the net proceeds of this offering for general corporate purposes including working capital.

As of September 30, there were a total of 99.76 million class B shares and 26.29 million class A shares outstanding. The largest shareholder is the The Woodman Family Trust, which is directed by GoPro’s founder and CEO Nicholas Woodman and by Jill R. Woodman. The trust owns 45 million class B shares, which are identical in value to class A shares, but each class B share gets 10 votes. The filing does not specify which among the 5% shareholders are selling shares or how many shares each might sell.

This is another case of striking while the IPO iron is hot. GoPro’s shares have tripled since their June initial public offering of 20 million shares at $24. The shares closed at $79.06 on Friday. The IPO lockup period ends on December 23, and virtually all the class A and class B shares will free to trade after that date. There is no date specified in the Form S-1 filed Monday.

GoPro shares traded down about 6.5% in Monday’s premarket, at $73.80 in a post-IPO range of $28.65 to $98.47.

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