3D Systems, one of the leading 3D printer manufacturers, announced a series of sweeping changes to their operations and outlook.
The company has been under pressure to make changes for some time, as their financial results have been, well, mediocre for several years. With a huge build up in their stock price as a result of the consumer 3D printing craze of 2014-15, the stock value subsequently plummeted and has remained at a low level for many years.
The company has not posted a profit in quite some time, with each quarter burning off more of their cash reserves. Their cash reserves were dwindling to the point where one could predict when they ran out, if continuing with their long-term practices. I was so concerned about this I wrote a piece with suggestions for 3D Systems, including several items that seem to be coming to pass with the new announcements.
The company just issued their second quarter 2020 financial statements, and as one might guess, they are not stellar. Certainly the pandemic has had an effect on their activity in this quarter, as it did in Q1, but they weren’t starting from a strong position either.
For this quarter, they announced a loss of US$38M, up almost 60% over the loss from 2019’s Q2. Notably, revenue declined a massive 28% in the quarter as well.
Now, new CEO Jeffrey Graves has announced a “New Strategic Focus” and several other moves to correct the issues.
First, they are now to focus solely on industrial and healthcare markets. This allows the company to shed assets and resources that were less productive to their overall operations. As such, Graves also announced a reduction of 20% of their workforce, likely in areas not focused on those markets.
Graves indicates this could save the company as much as US$100M per year in the long run, which makes sense and could possibly help push the company into a profitable position for the first time in ages.
The other major move is apparently to address the dwindling cash reserves, which have been slowly eaten away by years of losses. The company’s board of directors has provided approval to issue up to US$150M in stock. As I understand it, this means the company could sell its own stock holdings to the public. This means it has less control over the company — as new stockholders hold those sold shares, but that’s the price to gain US$150M that hopefully will be sufficient to carry them over the hump into a more economical world of the future.
After years of inaction, it seems that 3D Systems has finally put in gear some changes that could result in a much more positive position, and evidently that’s happened due to the new CEO, Jeffrey Graves. He says:
“We have a tremendous opportunity in this industry, and I am excited by the passion, the breadth of technology and the exceptional capabilities within our company. In the two months since I joined 3D Systems, I have held many reviews and discussions with our employees and key customers to understand the value we deliver and the markets that we serve. This has enabled us to state a clear purpose for our company moving forward – one that builds on our unique history and core strengths, which will guide us to an exciting future ahead: We are the leaders in enabling additive manufacturing solutions for applications in growing markets that demand high reliability products.”
I hope they manage to turn things around.
Via 3D Systems, 3D Systems and 3D Systems
