The wave of mergers and acquisitions continues. In the midst of these “business combinations”, there are some acquisitions that continue to leave everyone speechless like the fact that ExOne might be a Desktop Metal Company.
The announcement states that, ExOne shareholders will receive $8.50 in cash and $17.00 in shares of Desktop Metal common stock for each share of ExOne common stock, for a total consideration of $25.50 per share. All of this represents a transaction value of $575 million, subject to a collar mechanism and implying a 47.6% premium to the closing price of ExOne’s common stock on August 11, 2021 and a 43.9% premium based on the 30-day average closing price of ExOne common stock. The transaction value also implies an acquisition multiple of 6.4x 2021 consensus revenue estimates for ExOne.
Most acquisitions often rely on the addition of a new portfolio of services into one’s business. However, in this case, Desktop Metal and ExOne respectively have a large portfolio of technology processes in-house but both companies are leading the binder jetting market in this industry. Remember that they took part in one of our exclusive dossiers depicting the potential limitations of binder jetting and MIM.
Furthermore, let’s remind that ExOne, founded in 2005, is one of the first players that started the commercialization of metal binder jetting systems. Over time, the company has launched several metal binder jetting systems, with each being an evolution on the previous one. On the other hand, Desktop Metal, founded in 2015, has earned a unique positioning on the AM market with a technology (Production System) that continuously delivers substantial speed due to its inert industrial environment that integrates gas recycling and solvent recovery for the safe printing of reactive metals. An environment that enables to process a broader range of metals and that would make the Production System the fastest binder jetting 3D printer available on the market today.
This acquisition could therefore potentially be a real powerhouse marriage for binder jetting.
“We are thrilled to bring ExOne into the DM family to create the leading additive manufacturing portfolio for mass production,” said Ric Fulop, Founder and CEO of Desktop Metal. “We believe this acquisition will provide customers with more choice as we leverage our complementary technologies and go-to-market efforts to drive continued growth. This transaction is a big step in delivering on our vision of accelerating the adoption of additive manufacturing 2.0.”
The ExOne’s perspective
There are so many questions that this announcement raises, questions that ExOne may not have all the answers in the short-run. However, apart from this combination of resources to accelerate binder jetting, the ExOne team also believes in the complementary potential of two main fields of activities:
- Their material expertise in metals and ceramics, made possible through the company’s patented Triple ACT system and the work of their R&D and engineering teams, combined with the speeds of Desktop Metal’s Single Pass system;
- The combination of ExOne’s sand 3D printing platforms with DM’s low-cost Viridis3D robotic sand 3D printing technology
“We are excited to join forces with Desktop Metal to deliver a more sustainable future through our shared vision of additive manufacturing at high production volumes,” said John Hartner, CEO of ExOne. “We believe our complementary platforms will better serve customers, accelerate adoption of green technologies, and drive increased shareholder value. Most importantly, our technologies will help drive important innovations at meaningful production volumes that can improve the world.”
Remember, you can post job opportunities in the AM Industry on 3D ADEPT Media free of charge or look for a job via our job board. Make sure to follow us on our social networks and subscribe to our weekly newsletter : Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn & Instagram ! If you want to be featured in the next issue of our digital magazine or if you hear a story that needs to be heard, make sure you send it to contact@3dadept.com