American action camera maker GoPro and privately held optics company Starman Optical announced a $285 million acquisition deal. Starman Optical will pay GoPro shareholders $1.14 per share. The deal will let GoPro pay off $92 million in debt that had weighed on the company for years.
Once the deal closes, GoPro’s current shareholders will hold about 10% of the combined company. Both sides expect to close the transaction by the end of the year.
Starman Optical specializes in optical transceivers and photonics technology. It is part of Starman Holding, which also owns consumer brands Incase, Incipio, and Griffin.
GoPro said the deal would help it “maximize the value of its intellectual property.” The company expects to grow its presence in the consumer, commercial, and defense segments, and plans to move production for strategic markets to the United States. It will keep supporting its existing consumer product lineup.
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“We expect this merger allows GoPro to expand its presence in the consumer, commercial, and defense markets. The company will become a leading American imaging and optics solutions provider addressing critical national security needs in cameras, optics, and AI infrastructure,” said GoPro founder and CEO Nicholas Woodman.
News of the deal comes several months after GoPro said in May it would consider strategic proposals from various sectors, including defense.
Nicholas Woodman founded GoPro in 2002. The company built rugged HERO-series cameras for extreme conditions, the MAX model for 360-degree shooting, and the Karma drone. GoPro went public on NASDAQ in 2014. In recent years it has faced falling revenue, growing competition from Chinese brands, and a chip shortage, and in 2018 it cut staff and discontinued its drone line.
In June 2026, GoPro warned shareholders it risked bankruptcy without new financing. To avoid that, Woodman invested $20 million of his money in the company. GoPro issued him special securities in exchange, which can later be converted into shares.
