GoPro shares are up about 13% today on almost 1.4x the average trading volume of the last 3 months.
FBR analyst, Daniel Ives, put out a report saying that he thought GoPro would be a good acquisition candidate for
We believe an acquisition of GoPro would make sense for Apple; action cameras are uniquely positioned at the intersection of Apple’s smartphone, wearables, and multimedia offerings. Additionally, GoPro’s new product cycles could open the door to areas where Apple’s competitors are investing heavily (e.g., drones, VR), and Cupertino has been playing catch-up. We also see strategic value in GoPro being integrated with Apple’s strong multimedia ecosystem (e.g., iTunes, Apple TV, etc.).
In addition, GoPro announced the release of its Apple Watch app that would allow control of GoPro cameras from the wrist of an Apple Watch user.
This has further fueled the buying frenzy along with the speculation from Ives that GoPro would be a good strategic fit for Apple to buy out.
My take is simple and is as follows:
Like Apple's acquisition of Beats which was mainly for the expertise of the founders, Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine, a GoPro acquisition would be for the latter's technology only.
By taking over GoPro, Apple would gain invaluable access to GoPro's cutting edge camera and drone technology, with particular emphasis to the latter where Apple seems to be lagging behind the competition.
GoPro's push into virtual reality (VR) also would fit in nicely with Apple's own ambitions in that space.
Having said all the above, I think the move would make sense though a key factor that remains unknown is how far is Apple lagging in it's own initiatives for GoPro-like technology in cutting edge cameras, drones and VR is an unknown for now.
