After 2 days of doubling, it's booming again! GoPro (GPRO.US) rose 85% in the intraday period and Starman Optical entered AI optical communications

The Zhitong Finance App learned that the stock price of action camera manufacturer GoPro (GPRO.US) soared by about 85% shortly after opening on Tuesday, continuing the impressive increase of about 100% over the previous two trading days. As the stock price soared this time, GoPro announced that it had reached a final merger agreement with private company Starman Optical. Existing shareholders will receive a total of US$285 million in cash, equivalent to US$1.14 per share, and retain approximately 10% of the combined company's shares. What is more noteworthy is that this deal is planned to push GoPro from the traditional consumer camera market to AI data center optical transceivers and fields such as defense, aerospace, and robotics.

GoPro said on Tuesday that the company has signed a final merger agreement with Starman Optical. Under the terms of the deal, GoPro shareholders will receive a total of $285 million in cash, or $1.14 per share, and the final amount may be adjusted based on working capital. In addition to the cash consideration, GoPro's current shareholders will continue to hold approximately 10% of the combined company's shares.

When the deal is completed, GoPro's current outstanding debt of approximately $92 million will be fully repaid, leaving the combined company with a largely debt-free balance sheet. The deal is expected to be completed by the end of 2026, subject to regulatory and shareholder approval.

Notably, before GoPro officially announced its merger with Starman Optical, its stock price had risen sharply for two consecutive trading days, with a cumulative increase of about 100%.

On Monday, news that Mark Fischbac, a content creator with a huge fan base, has become GoPro's largest single shareholder attracted market attention. Driven by this, GoPro shares surged 46.1% to close at $0.88 on Monday.

Before entering Tuesday's market, GoPro's stock price had risen even more sharply, and after the company later officially announced the merger deal with Starman Optical, the stock price rally further expanded, and soared by about 85% shortly after opening.

This means that GoPro's recent rise wasn't entirely driven by merger news. Prior to the announcement of the deal, Markiplier, becoming the company's largest single shareholder, had already ignited the market's enthusiasm for trading this low-priced stock, and the merger agreement further strengthened investors' optimism.

Judging from the transaction structure, GoPro shareholders received more than just cash purchase consideration. According to the agreement, existing shareholders will receive $1.14 in cash per share while continuing to hold about 10% of the merged company's shares, which means that shareholders can still share the potential benefits of the new company's future business development.

Additionally, GoPro's approximately $92 million of outstanding debt will be fully repaid when the deal is completed. The company said that this will enable the merged enterprise to have a balance sheet with substantially reduced liabilities and almost no debt.

For a company whose stock price has been sluggish for a long time and has faced significant pressure to operate in recent years, debt settlement and balance sheet improvements have also become an important part of this transaction.

Compared to the cash purchase price, another aspect of this transaction that has received more attention from the market is that GoPro's future business layout may change significantly.

GoPro has long been famous mainly for action cameras and consumer-grade imaging devices, but after merging with Starman Optical, the company plans to expand its business to optical transceivers used in AI data centers.

As artificial intelligence infrastructure continues to expand, the demand for high-speed data transmission and optical communication equipment in large-scale AI data centers is growing rapidly. This merger means that GoPro's future business scope will no longer be limited to traditional consumer electronics products, but will further enter AI infrastructure-related markets.

At the same time, the merged company also plans to lay out fields such as government, defense, aerospace, and robotics.

However, GoPro will not withdraw from its original consumer-grade business as a result. The company said it will continue to support existing consumer products while maintaining its subscription services and cloud platform business. If the deal is successfully completed, GoPro's future business structure may gradually expand from the original sports camera as the core to various markets such as consumer electronics, AI data center optical communication, and government and industrial applications.

Despite GoPro's recent astonishing share price increase, this performance is in stark contrast to its previous sharp decline over a long period of time. GoPro's stock price was once above $11 in 2021, then continued to decline, and eventually fell to less than $1.

The recent sharp rise for several days is particularly impressive in terms of percentage, but even after this rebound, GoPro's stock price is still far below the level of a few years ago. For such companies whose stock price is less than $1 and the market capitalization has shrunk drastically, small-scale capital inflows and major corporate events can often cause more drastic stock price fluctuations.

The current market was first ignited by Markiplier as the largest single shareholder, and the subsequent merger deal with Starman Optical provided a new fundamental catalyst for the market, making GoPro one of the low-priced stocks with a high level of market attention in a short period of time.

Overall, the merger meant more than just getting $1.14 cash consideration per share for GoPro. After the transaction is completed, existing shareholders will also hold approximately 10% of the combined company's shares, and GoPro's debt of approximately $92 million will also be fully repaid. At the same time, the company plans to use Starman Optical to further expand its business footprint from traditional action cameras to AI data center optical transceivers, defense, aerospace and robotics markets.

However, the deal is still subject to regulatory and shareholder approval, and is expected to be completed by the end of 2026 at the earliest. Prior to that, it remains to be seen whether GoPro's stock price can maintain its current rise after several consecutive days of sharp increases, and whether the market's expectations for its cross-border AI infrastructure business can finally be fulfilled.