And today was a big day with a 6% gain thanks to rumors that IBM was looking to buy 3D Systems for a premium at $90 per share (DDD’s current price is $70 as of this writing).

Why Would IBM Buy 3D Systems?

First of all, 3D Systems is the leader in the 3D printing market. The company boasts the largest market capitalization and has proven it can expand its scope through acquisition and R&D.

Read: What is next for 3D printing giant 3D Systems?

The company has also expanded into the hot desktop 3D printing category.

3D Systems expects to generate around $500 million of revenue this year, with the majority of sales in the industrial sector. But it has also expanded aggressively into the consumer business with the Cube and CubeX 3D printers, and expects prices of desktop 3D printers to come down from $1300 to below $500 over time.

Related: Watch our video interview with 3D Systems CEO

A Defensive Move?

Perhaps IBM is concerned about the entry of other computing giants. HP CEO Meg Whitman said recently, “We want to lead this [3D printing] business. HP Labs is looking at it.”  With over $13 billion in cash, would HP’s first move be an acquisition?

Amazon also has entered the 3D printing market with the launch of a 3D Printing category on Amazon.com. eBay has also entered with a mobile 3D printing strategy.

Time will tell if the IBM rumor is true, and if so, IBM could be the company to usher in the next technology revolution.

Related: IBM Sees Exponential Growth of 3D Printing Industry

A roundup of the top 3D printing news from March 18 to March 24:

More than just a tool, 3D printing is an emerging ecosystem.
– Paul Brody, IBM on the exponential growth of the 3D printing industry

At the Siemens Global Innovation Summit in Phoenix, IBM’s Paul Brody gave a look at how manufacturing transformation is changing the traditional rules of product design and development.

Brody highlighted 3 technologies: 3D printing, intelligent robotics, and open-source engineering.

On 3D printing, he discussed key trends:

• 3D printing is rapidly achieving levels of performance required to be production-ready
• 3D printing is already used in production for medical devices and aerospace
• Performance is improving year on year
• At lower volumes, unit costs are competitive with machining and plastic injection molding

He also dove into trends on open-source and crowdsourcing, asserting that 80% of consumers told IBM they are willing to help enterprises develop their products. Brody claimed, “Accept their help or see them build your competition on Kickstarter.”

IBM had partnered with The Economist to analyze the growth rate of open-source design repositories, namely Thingiverse, and found that the number of 3D printable items is on an exponential upwards path while complexity as measured by number of parts is on a steady increase.

Paul Brody’s full talk is embedded below and more research from IBM is available here.