The short version: a YouTube creator just became the single largest owner of GoPro, the action camera company. Mark "Markiplier" Fischbach has taken an 8.5 percent stake in GoPro, Bloomberg reported. A stake is simply the share of a company's total ownership that one person holds, and no one now holds more of GoPro's than Fischbach.
He told Bloomberg he thinks GoPro "seems undervalued," meaning he believes the current market price of its shares does not reflect what the business is actually worth. His stated reasons go beyond a financial return. He described the move as "part of a larger mission to make filmmaking more accessible," a comment that came alongside the release of his first feature film, Iron Lung, earlier this year.
The investment and the film are, in his telling, part of the same project.
Where the camera fits in
Last week, Fischbach posted a video praising GoPro's Mission 1 ILS, the company's newest camera. He compared it to the Red Komodo-X, which he called the pricier option, and said he plans to use the Mission 1 ILS in future film projects.
The video includes an affiliate code for the Mission 1 ILS. An affiliate code is a tracked link that earns its holder a commission each time a buyer uses it to complete a purchase. Fischbach is now GoPro's largest shareholder and holds an affiliate arrangement on at least one of the company's cameras, with his own audience as the sales channel.