Nano Dimension announced plans on Wednesday to get Desktop Metal. The finer financial details are still being worked out, with the sale price ultimately ranging from $135 million to $183 million. On the high end, the deal marks a more than 27% premium over Desktop Metal’s closing price.
The news caps more than two years of volleys between some of the biggest names in additive manufacturing. After once-hot Desktop Metal underwent a 12% staff cut in July 2022, Nano Dimension acquired 12% of industrial 3D printing giant (and MakerBot owner) Stratasys. Last year Nano Dimension dealt with its own shareholder drama as Desktop Metal went through yet another round of layoffs.
A few months later, Nano Dimension made a bid to acquire Stratasys, which the latter rejected. Within a month, Stratasys and Desktop Metal announced plans to merge. 3D System followed the news with its own bid to acquire Stratasys. Multiple acquisition offers from both Nano Dimension and 3D Systems arrived—and were rejected—in the intervening months. The Stratasys/Desktop Metal deal fell through in September.
Industry publication TCT Magazine, which has closely covered the entire opera saga, spoke with Desktop Metal CEO Ric Fulop the same month.
“We are 100% independent. Our company is not for sale. Contrary to what people are making up, if you look at our cash position and our expenses, we’re going into our first profitable quarter with about $100 million,” Fulop said at the time. “We don’t need to sell our company, we like our company. And we weren’t selling our company, we were merging our company, we were going to stay with the company. So I would say that our goal in the future is to develop Desktop Metal independently and make it the best company in mass production in plugins.”
Eight months later, Fulop sounds positive about the Nano Dimension news. In his statement he notes:
We are excited to bring together our innovative, complementary product portfolios that will further enhance our ability to serve our customers in high-growth industries with a more comprehensive offering of digital manufacturing technologies for metal, electronics, casting, polymer, micropolymer and ceramics applications. We look forward to partnering with Nano Dimension to join two great companies and their dedicated teams that can serve our stakeholders to the fullest extent possible.
According to Nano Dimension, the deal was “unanimously approved” by the boards of directors of both companies. Nano Dimension plans to pay for the deal using cash once it closes in the fourth quarter of this year.
