YouTuber Markiplier becomes GoPro’s biggest shareholder and the share price doubles

Mark Fischbach, the YouTube creator known as Markiplier, is now the biggest single shareholder in GoPro. He has built up about 8.5% of the company. Bloomberg first reported this on August 31. The holding is about 13.5 million shares. Based on the share price when he bought, it cost him an estimated 9.3 million dollars.

The market reacted at once. GoPro finished the normal trading day up 46% at 1.37 dollars, and kept rising after hours. It more than doubled over the day, according to figures cited by Yahoo Finance. Earlier this year the share price had fallen to a record low of 57 cents. It was below the one dollar that Nasdaq requires for a company to stay listed.

The news came two days before GoPro starts shipping the Mission 1 Pro ILS. That is a cinema camera with changeable lenses, priced at 699.99 dollars. Fischbach has been promoting it in a 14-minute review on his channel, which has close to 40 million subscribers. He says the camera does for beginner film-makers what cameras costing ten times as much used to do. Fischbach told Bloomberg that he simply thought the shares looked cheap.

Markiplier is GoPro’s biggest owner, not just an endorser

Creators lending their name to a brand is normal. A creator becoming the biggest owner of a listed company is not. Fischbach has done more than endorse products before. He paid for his own horror film, “Iron Lung”, which cost about 3 million dollars to make and took roughly 50 million dollars at the box office. He has also put money into Strada, a file-sharing tool for film-makers. The GoPro purchase fits a pattern. Well-known creators are moving from sponsorship fees towards owning part of the companies they work with.

It also raises a question about telling the audience. Gizmodo notes that the review video, which carries an affiliate discount code, did not mention that Fischbach was about to become GoPro’s largest shareholder. The filing describes a passive stake, which means he does not control the company. Even so, people watching a very positive review would reasonably want to know that the reviewer owns 8.5% of it.

GoPro revenue fell 31.3% to about 105 million dollars

GoPro’s basic figures are still poor. Revenue in the second quarter fell 31.3% on the year to about 105 million dollars. The company reported a net loss of 51 million dollars. Camera sales dropped 38%, and the number of staff has been cut by 23% this year. Management has warned there is substantial doubt about whether the company can keep going. The average price target from analysts is 50 cents, well below the price after the jump.

Whether a creator’s audience can sell enough 699 dollar cameras to change that picture should become clearer over the holiday quarter. For now, Fischbach has given GoPro something it has lacked for years. People who actually buy cameras are paying attention.