Microsoft on Friday announced a patent licensing deal with GoPro that would allow the action camera manufacturer to take advantage of the software giant's file storage and other system technologies. The financial details of the agreement were not disclosed, but the announcement of the deal did shine upon GoPro as its shares jumped more than 4 percent in after-hours trading.
GoPro posted its quarterly results on Wednesday, where its sales plunged and missed analysts' expectations. GoPro founder and CEO Nicholas Woodman said the company needed to develop better software solutions to allow its customers to access and edit their content easily. The new deal aligns with the company's intention in doing so.
"This agreement with GoPro shows the incredible breadth of technology sharing enabled through patent transactions," Nick Psyhogeos, president of Microsoft Technology Licensing, said in an official blog post. "Microsoft's licensing of personal wearable technologies is seeing strong demand as we partner with companies from all industries to optimise solutions for their customers around the globe."
Microsoft Technology Licensing covers a wide range of programmes, one of which is exFat (extended file allocation table) File System. According to TechCrunch, GoPro's deal with Microsoft likely covers the above-mentioned technology, which allows saving larger files on storage media from 32GB to 256TB.
Microsoft's announcement of the licensing deal with GoPro was brief and did not give specifics of what it included. In response to TechCrunch's request for comment, the company said there is "nothing to share beyond what's in the press release." GoPro hasn't released any statement about the latest agreement and how it plans to use it for the development of its products.
GoPro expects its sales in the current year to range between $1.4 billion and $1.5 billion, and revenue between $160 million and $180 million in the current quarter.
