Today is the date when the outcome of the Stratasys takeover saga could be determined.
As a quick recap, Stratasys, one of the industry leaders, has been the subject of repeated takeover offers from the much smaller Nano Dimension in recent weeks. All of these offers were rejected by Stratasys and its shareholders, and ultimately Nano Dimension walked away from the scene.
In the midst of this, 3D Systems feared Stratasys could grow larger than their company as a result of these offers, especially combined with a prior agreement between Stratasys and Desktop Metal to merge. 3D Systems placed several offers of their own to take on Stratasys. If accepted, it would create by far the largest 3D printer manufacturer on the planet.
Their most recent offer was “not rejected”, meaning the two companies would undergo further discussions to see what could be done and settle on mutually agreeable price levels.
Last week 3D Systems announced that today, August 4th, would be the target date for completion of the discussions. They wrote:
“3D Systems Corporation today announced a target date of August 4, 2023 for completion of due diligence and merger agreement discussions with Stratasys Ltd. This would mark the culmination of efforts that commenced with the announcement on July 17, 2023 by the Board of Stratasys that the 3D Systems’ binding offer of July 13, 2023 would reasonably be expected to result in a ‘Superior Proposal’ as defined in Stratasys’ merger agreement with Desktop Metal, Inc.
With the conclusion of these efforts by Stratasys and 3D Systems on or about August 4, 3D Systems expects that Stratasys would be in a position to agree with Desktop Metal to terminate their agreement, 3D Systems would pay the termination fee that Stratasys will owe to Desktop Metal, and Stratasys and 3D Systems would execute a merger agreement.”
That date is today.
There are two possible outcomes:
- An agreement has been reached, and we may see announcements of such after stock trading closes today
- An agreement has not been reached and negotiations will continue
After all, 3D Systems wrote “on or about August 4”, which leaves some wiggle room to work through the weekend if things aren’t quite complete.
The parties are likely negotiating not only the amounts of funds and stocks to change hands, but possibly other matters. These could include:
- Outcome of overlapping functions
- What to do with conflicting resellers in some regions
- Executive placements
- Board of Directors composition
They will not be working on anything technological at this point, but that would be one of the areas of investigation should the merger go through.
At the end of today we may see an Earth-shattering change in the 3D print landscape, should these two come together in a deal.
Or maybe not.
Via 3D Systems
