Just when you thought 3D Systems was getting big and scary, the unexpected/expected happens. In an all-stock transaction, the merger of Israel-based Objet into Minnesota-based Stratasys, leaves the new entity with a $1.4 billion dollar equity value and a bigger slice of the market share.
Largest 3D Printing Company
Objet is famous for its line of multi-material and multi-colour printers and Stratasys for its line of durable FDM 3D printers.The aim of the merger was manifold. It’s a high-growth industry and it’s all about having the right distribution networks, the right patents and printers and the right people. Much of the press release covered topics about how Objet and Stratasys were saving costs and expanding each others respective businesses. When 3D Systems bought out ZCorp, it was for much the same reason. Get the biggest portfolio of networks and patents you can, and ride the wave.
All these acquisitions make me wonder – is it a good time to buy stocks in 3D printing companies? Mark Fleming of 3Dprinter.net says so.
This is an opportunity.
This environment is the best undiscovered investing opportunity that I have seen since the 90’s when wireless company Ericson, along with then powerhouse Nokia, told the investing world that Qualcomm’s CDMA technology (what most of us use now in one device or another) “defied the laws of physics.”
When you know something the world doesn’t know, you are in a powerful position.
But is it really all that? What good is a company that produces a product that people could (eventually) replicate themselves? In other words, when I can reliably print the electronics and the parts for a 3D printer, why would I buy one from a big company?
