http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2013/06/19/larger-rival-to-acquire-3-d-printing-start-up-makerbot/
Someone just made a fortune, MakerBot had raised $10 million in venture capital and gets bought for over $400.
Looks like I need to take a trip down the street to Stratasys and let them know I’m available…
is it just me, or does “Stratasys” sound like one of those made-up names for a big ominous tech corporation in a hollywood thriller?
anyway…
BTW, someone in the industry told me that most of the patents on this technology are falling into the public domain. The consolidation is the big players attempt at eliminating competition to keep prices up. We’ll see if that works…
Gentech
Omniware
Global Consolidated Innovations
Paragon Solutions
Automantic Network Group
Pantron Systems
Halliburton…oh wait…
Exactly, there was nothing stopping Stratasys from making a low end machine on their own. Now they can hobble Makerbot and keep the high end market safe. Kind of like when Dassault bought Solidworks.
So will they call it Stratabot? Makersys?
Stratasys do, but it’s $10K!
127mm x 127mm x 127mm build platform, so same size as a sub-$1000 printer. Support material and comes with an ultrasonic bath, probably bulletproof, but still, ten grand!
Come on!
According to CNNMoney, MakerBot’s VC backers will get “a return north of 12x in less than three years.”
That’s why the VC game is so amazing. I wish I had more C to V.
This makes me very sad. I’m more than happy for the VC’s and the founders, but for the community it is a great loss.
What community? A why is it sad… … ?
I think he is referring to the 3D printing community, but I have no idea why it would be a sad thing… If anything it would be good. It could very well make Makerbots more reliable and user friendly, which is exactly what needs to happen if 3D printing wants to be brought to everyday people.
I don’t think the acquisition will change much.
The bigger loss for the 3D printing community was back when they got their first large investment. They cut ties with the open source and open hardware crowds that had been championing them as proof that you could have a viable business model while still keeping everything open. Two years ago when I bought mine, people were building acrylic Makerbots and modding them like crazy based on the publicly available build files, specs and code. It really helped create momentum in the technology, and I’m still seeing remnants of it today:
Giant Makerbot/Reprap derivative at my local hackerspace last Wednesday
They’ve been closed off for a while, and will just stay closed.
The 3D Printing community and the efforts of open source technology development as mentioned above. Yes Makerbot broke off with the Replicator 2, but there was still very active support in the Google group with a lot of people devoting much time to improve techniques and are providing some of the best consumer feedback a company could ask for.
There’s rules for that. Typically $1MM net worth, last 2 years income of $200K/year and expect $200K this year.
Should be no problem for a senior designer.
Also, standard rate of expected return on VC is a minimum of 8% per year. And the 12x payout is going to be based on the valuation at the time of investment. I’m sure there was more than one round.
Stratasys is taking over the world;
So investors made a fortune from the sale to Stratasys while factory workers will lose their jobs. Look for this story to come up in the presidential campaign trail.