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Stratasys Acquiring MakerBot

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Re: Stratasys Acquiring MakerBot

#21

Post by seany »

revelation wrote: post #9
emilepetrone wrote: post #6

Has anyone heard if they will take the tech back towards open or move in a closed direction? I don't know much about Statasys but I'm guessing they are a closed company and their machines aren't open sourced?

Statasys is the company that unilaterally suspended a leasing contract for one of their more professional targeted printers after the leaser used it to print lower receivers and other various gun parts. I'm not too sure they are up to par with the freedoms open source is meant to afford.

That's the first thing that came to mind for me too.

Re: Stratasys Acquiring MakerBot

#22

Post by makomk »

tmuir wrote: post #13

What sort of IP does MakerBot have? Its a reprap (fully opensource) that needs slightly-less-constant maintenance, and they've iterated on the extruder about 10 times. There's also some software. If $400,000,000 (possibly $600,000,000) isn't a big enough budget to develop a low end 3D printer, what are the development budgets of their industrial grade printers?

MakerBot have at least some patents, including a patent on a conveyor system for automated building.

Re: Stratasys Acquiring MakerBot

#23

Post by msds »

smaili wrote: post #11

Sounds like an acqhire to me.

If an acqhire, it's not for the engineering team. As addressed above, it's more likely for the brand recognition - given how finely tuned their propaganda machine is, they may be worth it.

Re: Stratasys Acquiring MakerBot

#25

Post by milkshakes »

jdboyd wrote: post #18
tmuir wrote: post #13

What sort of IP does MakerBot have? Its a reprap (fully opensource) that needs slightly-less-constant maintenance, and they've iterated on the extruder about 10 times. There's also some software. If $400,000,000 (possibly $600,000,000) isn't a big enough budget to develop a low end 3D printer, what are the development budgets of their industrial grade printers?

They are also getting the branding and employees, which I would imagine are where most of the worth is. Also, the MakerBot Replicator 2, which has sold more units than all previous models combined, is mostly not at all opensource.

it's definitely not a talent acquisition. most of the valuable employees left in the past few years.

Re: Stratasys Acquiring MakerBot

#26

Post by aray »

tmuir wrote: post #13

What sort of IP does MakerBot have? Its a reprap (fully opensource) that needs slightly-less-constant maintenance, and they've iterated on the extruder about 10 times. There's also some software. If $400,000,000 (possibly $600,000,000) isn't a big enough budget to develop a low end 3D printer, what are the development budgets of their industrial grade printers?

First off, it was $200M cash and $400 newly issued stock. They'll have to get the shareholders to approve, but seeing as they're pretty well up in after-hours, I don't think that will be a problem.

Also they had a $10M round just recently, so those investors are going to want to cash out.

After that, theres rumors that their last year broke $70M in revenues (after $10M in revenues the year before), and they're not really slowing down.

So, all things considered its a high price, but I dont think $200M cash isn't too much to fork over.

The big question will be how they handle it. Will they start persuing all the other (much smaller) 3D printing companies for infringement? Will they just give makerbot more resources and freedom and tell them to keep doing their thing? Will they make their (professional) CAD software compatible with Makerbots printers and software, allowing a clean upgrade path between low-end and high-end printers? We'll see, but apparently Stratasys has high hopes for what they can do with it.

Re: Stratasys Acquiring MakerBot

#27

Post by rakeshsharmak »

I am no expert but I believe Stratasys paid for the brand and community. MakerBot is the most well-known 3D printer out there but not the cheapest or most well-designed (in the prosumer category). My guess is that the infusion of cash will help MakerBot manufacture more printers at cheaper costs and, thus, enable them to target additional market segments (beyond the prosumer category, where they already face competition from Form1 labs).

Re: Stratasys Acquiring MakerBot

#28

Post by 46Bit »

milkshakes wrote: post #25
jdboyd wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are also getting the branding and employees, which I would imagine are where most of the worth is. Also, the MakerBot Replicator 2, which has sold more units than all previous models combined, is mostly not at all opensource.

it's definitely not a talent acquisition. most of the valuable employees left in the past few years.

Do you have a lot of knowledge of their team's background and what Stratasys wanted from this deal? Without a clear definition of what's valuable here that's a sweeping judgement.

Re: Stratasys Acquiring MakerBot

#29

Post by andrewmb »

Wow. This is more than 2x my most optimistic estimates when I first heard the rumors, but I was banking on a larger cash component. I'm in agreement with other posters here who have suggested the purchase is for the brand name and I want to add that control of Thingiverse is no small matter either.

Re: Stratasys Acquiring MakerBot

#30

Post by gregpilling »

msds wrote: post #23
smaili wrote: post #11

Sounds like an acqhire to me.

If an acqhire, it's not for the engineering team. As addressed above, it's more likely for the brand recognition - given how finely tuned their propaganda machine is, they may be worth it.

It is certainly not for the engineering. I purchased a Makerbot and was horrified at what passed for engineering in the design of their product. They claim some absurd accuracy in the Z axis, when on my machine (Thing O matic) the Z axis carrier would flex a 1/4 inch while printing. How can you have .00? accuracy when the whole platform flexes .250?
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