GoPro shares are tanking more than 20% after the sports video camera maker warned of holiday sales that were lower than expected and announced plans to slash its headcount by 7%.
It's a remarkable turn of events for GoPro, a hardware-industry success story that had a blockbuster initial public offering in 2014.
But even back when GoPro was basking in glowing investor sentiment, there were already warning signs that the company could face problems, as venture capitalist Marc Andreessen pointed out on Twitter at the time GoPro filed to go public.
In February 2014, the day after news broke that GoPro had filed to go public, Andreessen Horowitz partner Chris Dixon tweeted, "GoPro is a company that develops communities of sports enthusiasts and happens monetize by selling electronics."
GoPro is a company that develops communities of sports enthusiasts and happens monetize by selling electronics. http://t.co/25RwgJ4YRX
— Chris Dixon (@cdixon) February 8, 2014@cdixon Ah yes! The convenient fiction of all new hardware companies until their product gets commoditized :-).
— Marc Andreessen (@pmarca) February 8, 2014@octal@cdixon@BenedictEvans At the time many smart people believed Flip had fundamentally cracked code on ease of use in sustainable way.
— Marc Andreessen (@pmarca) February 8, 2014@cdixon@BenedictEvans Lose product edge especially in hardware and customers say sayanora with no second thoughts.
— Marc Andreessen (@pmarca) February 8, 2014@smc90@cdixon@BenedictEvans Latest theories :-). Let's check back in 3 years :-).
— Marc Andreessen (@pmarca) February 8, 2014SEE ALSO: GoPro cuts jobs and warns its sales are a disaster
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