Tag Archives: M&A
Top 3D Printing News Last Week: MakerBot Acquired, Modibot Kickstarter
3D Printing News
A roundup of the top 3D printing news from June 17 to June 23:
Tuesday, June 18
Wednesday, June 19
Saturday, June 22
Sunday, June 23
Full Analysis of the Stratasys and MakerBot 3D Printing Acquisition
Full Analysis of Stratasys and MakerBot Deal
On June 19, desktop 3D printer company MakerBot was acquired by Stratasys for $403 million. The next day, executives from Stratasys and MakerBot hosted a conference call with analysts to discuss the transaction. Seeking Alpha published a full transcript of the call and we provide our analysis on the deal below.
Executives on the call included:
- Shane Glenn – VP Investor Relations
- S. Scott Crump – Chairman of the Board
- David Reis – Chief Executive Officer
- Bre Pettis – CEO and Co-Founder of MakerBot
- Erez Simha – Chief Operations Officer, Israel and Chief Financial Officer
Stratasys Definitive Move into Desktop 3D Printer Market
Stratasys has long been a leader in the additive manufacturing industry. In December they completed a merger with Israel-based Objet to create a $3 billion 3D printer company. Now, with the addition of MakerBot, Stratasys is definitively embracing the desktop 3D printer market.
The executives commented that desktop 3D printing is the next industrial revolution.
It has been widely reported that MakerBot has major customers in organization like GE, NASA and Lockheed Martin, and continue to sell its desktop 3D printers to other Major Fortune 500 companies as well as small entrepreneurial startups and individuals.
Desktop 3D printing usage among design and engineering professional is growing rapidly. Stratasys and MakerBot estimate that between 35,000 to 40,000 desktop 3D printers were sold in 2012. This number is estimated to double in 2013, as consumers increasingly adopt desktop 3D printers for broad range of applications.
In acquiring MakerBot, Stratasys has expanded its scope, selling 3D printers priced from $2,000 to more than $600,000 for all purposes. The MakerBot products allow for more accessibility and affordability of 3D printers that will enable more rapid growth.
MakerBot Company Profile
MakerBot, headquartered in Brooklyn, is the market leader in desktop 3D printing, selling more than 22,000 3D printers since 2009. The company has 274 employees.
MakerBot generated revenues of $15.7 million in 2012, and grew rapidly to $11.5 million in Q1 2013. The company sells two 3D printers: the MakerBot Replicator 2 Desktop 3D Printer, and the MakerBot Replicator 2X Experimental 3D Printer. Retail prices range from $2,200 to $2,800. The majority of sales are placed on the MakerBot website. 60% of customers are based in North America, and 40% international.
The 3D printers are assembled in Brooklyn at a 55,000 square foot production facility in the Sunset Park neighborhood.
MakerBot hosts a web community called Thingiverse, where users can upload 3D printable files. There are more than 90,000 3D product files online and the site has more than 500,000 unique visitors and 1 million downloads each month.
Bre Pettis’ View
MakerBot CEO shared his perspective on the deal:
Our company shares a vision about how to lead the market’s growth and development and it’s all about creating a great user experience. We are very proud of what we have built at MakerBot, but we’ve only just begun. That’s why we are so attracted by the opportunity to join with Stratasys.
Our mission remains the same. Merging with Stratasys offers us an opportunity to continue to build our business and pursue our vision under the MakerBot brand. The last couple of years have been incredibly inspiring and exciting for us. We have an aggressive model for growth. Partnering with Stratasys will allow us to supercharge that mission to empower individuals to make things using a MakerBot and allow us to bring 3D technology to more people.
Deal Structure
Stratasys will issue 4.76 million shares of its stock, worth $403 million, in exchange for 100% of the outstanding capital stock of MakerBot.
In addition, MakerBot stakeholders will also be eligible for performance-based earn-outs of up $201 million through the end of 2014.
Read the full transcript at Seeking Alpha.
MakerBot Acquired by Stratasys for $403 Million
3D Printing Company MakerBot Acquired by Stratasys
MakerBot CEO Bre Pettis has reason to be smiling. His firm was just acquired for $403 million by Stratasys.
According to a report from the Wall Street Journal, privately-held MakerBot will trade its stock for new stock issue of publicly-traded Stratasys in a transaction that expands the growth of the desktop 3D printer market.
The Wall Street Journal also released details about MakerBot’s sales of 3D printers.
MakerBot has sold more than 22,000 3D printers since it was founded in 2009 and in the recent first quarter it generated total revenue of $11.5 million. The company’s products are increasingly used by so-called prosumers, including engineers, designers, architects, manufacturers who buy high-tech products or equipment, and consumers for personal applications.
This is Stratasys’ second large deal in the last year. In December, Stratasys merged with Objet to create a $3 billion juggernaut.
We’ve reached out to MakerBot for comment.
3D Systems Issues New Common Stock; Watch Out for M&A
3D Systems Stock Issue Hints at New M&A Activity
3D Systems Corporation (NYSE:DDD) today announced that, at its annual meeting held today, its stockholders approved an amendment to its Certificate of Incorporation to increase the authorized number of shares of Common Stock from 120,000,000 to 220,000,000.
“We are grateful to our stockholders for their support,” said Avi Reichental, President and Chief Executive Officer, 3D Systems. “This increase in our authorized shares restores our flexibility to use newly issued shares of our common stock for appropriate corporate purposes.”
What could those corporate purposes be? Likely more M&A. Last year, 3D Systems acquired a number of companies, including:
- Bespoke Innovations in May 2012 for 3D printed personalized prosthetics
- FreshFiber in May 2012 for 3D printed electronics accessories
- My Robot Nation in April 2012 for creative solutions to support 3D printing community Cubify for kids and adults
- Paramount Industries in April 2012 to advance aerospace and medical device 3D printing
Tinkercad Acquired by Autodesk: Free 3D Design Software Lives On!
Tinkercad Acquired by Autodesk
In what will be great news to Tinkercad fans across the globe, the free 3D design software has found a new home at Autodesk. Autodesk has a suite of pro design software and its own free software such as 123D and 123D Catch for iPad.
Tinkercad is free, online 3D design software that is popular among 3D printing enthusiasts. The team announced they were shutting down Tinkercad in March 2013.
Now, in a change of course, Autodesk has acquired the software and website.
Here’s the memo from Founder & CEO Kai Backman:
I am happy to announce that we have just signed a deal where Autodesk will purchase the Tinkercad site and core technologies. This is a great day for all Tinkercad users, Autodesk is an very enthusiastic and capable steward. There are two main impacts of this deal: the site is fully operational and Autodesk has some very exciting plans for Tinkercad.
The shutdown plan has been rolled back and effective immediately new users are again able to sign up for the site. Even better, at the request of Autodesk, we have supercharged the free plan. You can now create unlimited designs, all import and export functionality is enabled and ShapeScripts are turned on for free accounts. We have automatically upgraded all existing free accounts to this new powerful plan. This account will be offered for a limited time only so make sure you sign up as soon as possible.
Before signing the deal the we spent a lot of time talking to Autodesk engineers and product people about their vision for Tinkercad. We were impressed by the deep insight the Autodesk team had into the Tinkercad interface and the underlying technology. There is also a strong alignment on topics like furthering education and the vision of making design more accessible. But most of all we are very excited about the roadmap Autodesk has drafted for Tinkercad.
As our team continues working on Airstone I’m pleased to see Tinkercad find a safe and welcoming home. I can speak for everyone when I say that we are looking forward to using Tinkercad for a long time to come.
Yours sincerely,
Kai Backman
Founder & CEO
