Super-quick: additive manufacturing consolidation, this time for real

Do you remember last year’s kerfuffle about Nano Dimensions acquiring and then not acquiring Desktop Metal, which itself wanted to merge with Stratasys, and then 3D Systems entered the mix? It was a confusing series of non-events that kept promising to reshape the additive manufacturing landscape. Companies hired accountants, lawyers, and consultants to “pursue alternatives,” and nothing much happened. 

Until July 2024, when Nano Dimension announced that it would acquire Desktop Metal after all. Strange deal structure: Nano Dimension would acquire all outstanding shares of Desktop Metal in an “ll-cash transaction for $5.50 per share, subject to possible downward adjustments to $4.07 per share” for transaction expenses and a potential loan from Nano to Desktop if the deal doesn’t close in 2024. That’s quite a downward adjustment; the original deal value is around $183 million, which could drop to $135 million if the adjustments happen. 

Anyway, the logic for Nano+Desktop, according to Yoav Stern, CEO of Nano Dimension, is that it would create “mass manufacturing for critical industrial applications.” Desktop Metal co-founder and CEO Ric Fulop said, “We’re excited to bring together our … complementary product portfolios … [of] digital manufacturing technologies for metal, electronics, casting, polymer, micro-polymer and ceramics applications.”

Welp, apparently, that wasn’t complete enough.

Yesterday, Nano said that it was acquiring Markforged to take “bold action in its journey towards becoming a digital manufacturing leader and being a foundational pillar of Industry 4.0. Markforged is an exceptional company with innovative AM materials and solutions for true production … We believe the combination of Nano Dimension, Desktop Metal, and Markforged further strengthens our unique opportunity in creating value for our shareholders, customers, and employees as we work to deliver profitable growth, exceptional services, and notable career development opportunities.”

Nano will pay Markforged shareholders a total of $115 million, or $5 per share. 

The combined Nano Dimension+Desktop Metal+Markforged would have had a combined 2023 revenue of $340 million.

This may not be the last consolidation in the additive world, but it puts at least one chapter to rest. As I wrote when this all started to percolate, additive manufacturing is still an emerging technology —much more slowly than had been predicted— as material science and metal additive printing technology evolve. By creating a one-stop shop for many technologies now on the market, Nano hopes to use its (about-to-be) scale to accelerate the adoption of these new technologies. 

The companies expect the Desktop Metal transaction to close first, then Markforged, and it will likely all be done by early 2025.