Key points

  • Mark Fischbach, the YouTuber known as Markiplier, is GoPro's largest individual shareholder — 13,500,000 Class A shares, or 8.5% of the class, disclosed in a Schedule 13G filed with the SEC on August 20.
  • GoPro (GPRO) closed at $1.39 on September 3, up from $0.60 on August 28, after touching $1.64 intraday on September 1 on 500 million shares against a 21 million daily average.
  • GoPro agreed on September 1 to merge with Starman Optical — $1.14 a share in cash plus 0.1 of a share in the surviving company, $285 million in total, with the camera maker staying listed on Nasdaq.

One of YouTube's best-known creators is now the biggest individual owner of a Nasdaq-listed camera company, and retail traders have spent the week treating it as the meme trade of the moment.

Who bought in

Fischbach, who has more than 38 million YouTube subscribers, reported 13,500,000 GoPro shares on a Schedule 13G filed on August 20, carrying a July 13 event date. It is the passive form of the disclosure: he certified that the shares were not acquired to change or influence control of the company.

He told Bloomberg he considers the stock undervalued and frames the position as support for more accessible filmmaking rather than activism. Fischbach directed and starred in Iron Lung, released in January on a $3 million budget, and has told Tubefilter that GoPro's $699.99 Mission 1 Pro ILS outperforms the $7,000 cinema camera he shot that film on.

The rally

GoPro closed at $0.61 the day the filing appeared, and nothing happened for seven trading sessions. The stock then closed at $0.88 on August 31, a one-day rise of 46.06% on 220 million shares, ran to $1.64 intraday on September 1, closed at $1.69 on September 2 and settled at $1.39 on September 3.

Volume tells the same story: 500 million shares changed hands on September 1 against a 21 million daily average. Accused online of running a pump and dump, Fischbach said in a YouTube broadcast on September 2 that he neither bought nor sold during the run.

The merger that landed mid-rally

On September 1 GoPro signed a merger agreement with Starman Optical, a privately held optical-photonics company. Each share converts into $1.14 in cash plus 0.1 of a share in the surviving company — $285 million in aggregate — with roughly $92 million of debt repaid at closing. GoPro's board approved the deal unanimously and Houlihan Lokey provided a fairness opinion.

The company stays on Nasdaq and keeps its consumer cameras and subscription business while adding Starman's US-made optical transceivers, aimed at AI data centre, defence and aerospace demand. At $1.39 the stock trades $0.25 above the cash component on its own.

What happens next

The merger needs regulatory clearance and a shareholder vote and is expected to close by year-end. Fischbach's 8.5% is an economic stake rather than a controlling one: founder and CEO Nicholas Woodman holds 63.08% of the voting power through Class B shares, according to GoPro's April proxy statement.

One footnote from the filings: GoPro's own officers and directors have not made an open-market purchase this year. Across 30 Form 4 filings reviewed by InsiderBuying.com the record is stock grants, tax withholdings and seven sales.

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