GoPro Zooms 34% Higher on Starman Optical Merger and Markiplier Stake; Coherent Climbs 7%, Lumentum Gains 3%
GoPro is surging on a merger that turns a camera company into an optical-transceiver play, and a famous YouTuber just became its largest individual shareholder. Here is what the move actually means against a backdrop of proven incumbents already delivering…
Optical-photonics stocks are running Friday morning, along with a stock that’s commonly associated with cameras and accessories, even as broad benchmarks slip. Notably, the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSEARCA:SPY) is down 0.33% to $770.59, and the NASDAQ 100 tracking Invesco QQQ Trust (NASDAQ:QQQ) is essentially flat at $718.38.
GoPro (NASDAQ:GPRO) stock is up 34% to $1.86, extending a rerating that began Monday on the company’s Starman Optical merger news. Meanwhile, Coherent (NYSE:COHR | COHR Price Prediction) stock is up 7% to $282.45, giving the AI-connectivity theme a listed anchor with real datacenter revenue behind it. Lumentum Holdings (NASDAQ:LITE) stock is up 3% to $876.92, rounding out the incumbent optical set with a comparatively milder session gain.
The category itself is bid up today, and GoPro’s move is continuation of a deal already in the tape. The transaction was disclosed earlier in the week, so today’s flow is driven by positioning and enthusiasm around the pivot into optical, with no fresh operating disclosure attached.
Starman Merger Terms and a Markiplier Stake
GoPro agreed on Monday to merge with Starman Optical, a privately held U.S. maker of optical transceivers. Under the terms, GoPro shareholders receive an aggregate $285 million, or $1.14 per share in cash, and retain roughly 10% of the combined company’s outstanding shares. GoPro said the transaction also extinguishes roughly $92 million of outstanding debt. The combined entity keeps its Nasdaq listing and is expected to close by year-end, subject to regulatory and stockholder approval.
CEO Nicholas Woodman said the deal positions GoPro as a leading American imaging and optical solutions company, extending its portfolio into AI datacenter infrastructure alongside defense, government, robotics, and aerospace markets. Separately, content creator Mark Fischbach, known online as Markiplier, disclosed a stake that makes him GoPro’s largest individual shareholder. That wrinkle has drawn meme-adjacent flow into an otherwise straightforward strategic deal, and it helps explain why the tape keeps extending well past the cash portion of the offer.
Coherent and Lumentum Anchor the Trade
Coherent is the tangible comparison for what GoPro is trying to buy its way into. The company posted Q4 FY2026 revenue of $2.05 billion, up 33.7% year over year (YoY), with Datacenter & Communications revenue at $1.615 billion, or 79% of the total and up 59% YoY on a pro forma basis. CEO Jim Anderson stated Coherent enters fiscal 2027 with “exceptional customer demand, expanding production capacity, and multiple new growth platforms beginning to ramp.”
Lumentum’s fiscal Q4 print was equally forceful. Revenue reached $1.01 billion, up 109.3% YoY, with non-GAAP EPS of $3.23 and a non-GAAP operating margin of 36.6%. CEO Michael Hurlston stated Lumentum is “positioned at the heart of a secular industry shift” as AI compute pushes datacenter architects toward optical links for primary connectivity.
Both incumbents are producing results the newly combined GoPro entity has yet to demonstrate publicly (we profiled seven companies powering the AI datacenter buildout, from optical to power and cooling, in a free report). That gap is why today’s flow reads as a category bid with a speculative overlay on the top ticker, and why the softer moves in Coherent and Lumentum look more sober than the headline GoPro number.
What to Watch
GoPro trades meaningfully above the $1.14 cash figure, which means the tape is factoring in an unpriced stub whose optical-transceiver business has no public operating history. Investors can watch for signs that the arbitrage math tightens as the deal moves toward closing, since that would likely drain some of the froth out of the continuation trade.
The Starman product mix also has to prove out against the incumbents. Coherent’s indium-phosphide ramp and Lumentum’s 1.6T module traction set a high bar, and any pricing or capacity slippage in the newly merged entity would show up quickly against those benchmarks.
Coherent and Lumentum shares remain cleaner ways to invest in the AI-connectivity theme, and traders should keep their exposure sized to a category that has already priced in a great deal of good news. Small positions, staggered entries, and clear risk limits fit the setup better than chasing a single-session move in a stock trading on flow while fresh disclosure remains absent.
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David Moadel is financial writer specializing in stocks, ETFs, options, precious metals, and Bitcoin. David has written well over 1,000 articles for leading online publications, helping investors understand markets, income strategies, and risk.His work has appeared in The Motley Fool, InvestorPlace, U.S. News & World Report, TipRanks, ValueWalk, Benzinga, Market Realist, TalkMarkets, Finmasters, 24/7 Wall St., and others.With a master’s degree in education, David has taught at the elementary, high school, and college levels. That teaching background shapes his writing style: clear, educational, and practical. David has also built a loyal social-media audience by providing trustworthy financial content on YouTube, X/Twitter, and StockTwits.
