Nano Dimension announced its subsidiary, Desktop Metal, has filed for bankruptcy under chapter 11 of the US bankruptcy code.
A press release said the following:
“The decision to file for bankruptcy protection was made by Desktop Metal’s independent Board of Directors, who conducted a process to explore available strategic alternatives and address Desktop Metal’s significant liabilities and liquidity needs stemming from decisions made by its prior management.”
Nano Dimension CEO Ofir Baharav said:
“We are safeguarding our financial strength and preserving our position as the best capitalized company in our ecosystem. This is what enables the Company’s to pursue strategic opportunities from a position of maximum strength—and that is exactly what the Company’s shareholders should expect from us.”
This is not at all surprising. It was pretty clear from Desktop Metal’s financials that they were a company in trouble. They had been seeking connection with other companies, even going as far as striking a deal to merge with Stratasys. However, that was shot down by Stratasys shareholders — fortunately for Stratasys, it turns out.
Desktop Metal did find a saviour in the previous Nano Dimension regime, which was also in acquisition mode. However, Nano Dimension shareholders were not at all happy with that strategy, and after considerable legal wrangling managed to oust previous management and install new leaders.
That new leadership was obviously not fond of Desktop Metal, and almost immediately decided not to acquire the assets of the company, and now it seems they are putting the company into bankruptcy.
Desktop Metal had been on the ropes financially, and the deal to be purchased by Nano Dimension almost didn’t make it, and it took a lawsuit by Desktop Metal to force Nano Dimension to close the books on that arrangement. For shareholders of Desktop Metal, this must seem like a miracle. Had the deal not gone through, they would have likely gone bankrupt anyway, leaving nothing much for the shareholders.
This seems to be the end for Desktop Metal, which had launched on the scene several years ago with a then-unique binder jet metal 3D printing system that was much more affordable than the LBPF systems on the market.
Over time, Desktop Metal grew, and raised a significant amount of venture capital cash. A good portion of that cash was used for acquisitions of other 3D print technologies. The likely theory at the time was that it would be better to have more technologies to sell to a customer, lest they go somewhere else.
In that strategy, Desktop Metal made quite a number of major acquisitions, including:
- January 2021: EnvisionTEC (Professional resin 3D printing)
- May 2021: Adaptive3D (Photopolymer resin manufacturer)
- July 2021: Aerosint (Multimaterial SLS technology)
- August 2021: ExOne (Binder jet systems for sand and metal 3D printing)
- September 2021: Aidro (On demand 3D print services)
- November 2021: Meta Additive (Jetting tech for 3D printing)
Also, ExOne had previously acquired FreshMade 3D, an engineering and services company.
The bankruptcy means not only Desktop Metal is going down, but all of these acquisitions with it, since Nano Dimension is not picking up the assets. That’s definitely not good news considering all the effort put in by hundreds of people to build those technologies. Perhaps some other party will scoop up some of them, no doubt at discount prices.
On the other hand, the market has spoken: the Desktop Metal technologies were simply not worth it.
Via Nano Dimension
