Brooklyn 3D printer company MakerBot to merge with Stratasys
Brooklyn 3D printer manufacturer MakerBot, headquartered in MetroTech in Downtown Brooklyn, has signed a $403 million merger agreement with a subsidiary of Stratasys Ltd. (NASDAQ: SSYS), a company specializing in professional-grade 3D printing and manufacturing. The companies announced the merger on Wednesday.
MakerBot, founded in 2009, helped develop the booming desktop 3D printing market and has built the largest installed base of 3D printers in the category. The MakerBot Replicator Desktop 3D Printer has been named Popular Mechanics’ “Overall Winner” for best 3D printer.
In the last nine months the company sold 11,000 MakerBot Replicator2 printers. Replicator2, about the size of a microwave oven, sells for $2,200 and can be used to produce almost any 3D object, from art works to belt buckles, iPhone cases, robot parts, tools or toys. (MakerBot deleted a collection of blueprints for gun components from its database after an unrelated mass shooting.)