GoPro founder's fortune fall $1.4 billion this year

YEREVAN, October 2. / ARKA /. Nick Woodman, the billionaire founder of action camera-maker GoPro Inc, has seen his fortune fall $1.4 billion this year amid a market downdraft and as concern mounts about competition from Apple Inc and other companies, vestifinance.ru reported citing Bloomberg.

GoPro is down 53 per cent in 2015. Woodman's net worth is down 46 per cent for the year to $US1.6 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, buoyed by cash from sales of GoPro shares. Apple is up about 2 per cent this year, according to data collected by Bloomberg.

The decline comes even as the company has sought to expand its reach, including a deal with Toyota Motor Corp to use GoPro as the on-board camera for its 2016 Tacoma pickups, and the hiring of Hulu's Charlotte Koh as head of a newly created division to produce features and series.

GoPro's rout has also hit Woodman's compensation. He collected $US287.2 million last year, mostly in restricted stock, which made him the highest-paid executive in the US. One-third of the shares paid out immediately. Another two-thirds were earned based on price targets the company hit in January - the first month of a three-year performance period. Those will pay out through June 2017, according to the company's proxy.

He remains the highest-paid executive in the US, according to the Bloomberg Pay Index, though his compensation has fallen to $US136.3 million.

The second-highest earning US executive, Liberty Global chairman and CEO Michael Fries, has seen the value of his 2014 pay fall to $US119.4 million from $US132 million. Elon Musk, the founder of Tesla Motors Inc, is No. 3 with a current value of $US115 million. -0-

Read the news first and discuss them in our Telegram

11:35 10/02/2015