Buzz on the interwebs last night indicated another 3D Systems acquisition has taken place. This time they’ve scooped up Florida-based hobby 3D printer manufacturer BotMill. While there doesn’t seem to be an official announcement or press release on this event yet, there is a very telling indication from the graphic on BotMill’s site, as shown above. The acquisition was confirmed to us last night by 3D Systems.
BotMill has advanced rapidly in the past year, ramping up their production capabilities significantly and evidently achieving commercial success by selling assembled versions of the popular open source RepRap 3D printer. Their product line currently includes two 3D printers – and we suspect another one might be coming soon. They also sell a wide variety of plastic, accessories and parts in addition to several specialized services.
This acquisition leaves 3D Systems with two separate lines of hobby 3D printers: BotMill and Bits From Bytes. There could be some market overlap between BotMill’s Glider & Axis models and BFB’s RapMan, so we’re wondering how 3D Systems will proceed.
BotMill has been quite successful, but is that the only reason for 3D Systems’ acquisition? We’re trying to find out today and hope to have more information soon.
Oh my god they sucked so bad… Why the hell would anyone buy that company.
10 weeks since paying for a Glider from Botmill and no printer. These guys are crooks.
Nice, now everyone knows to stay away form 3D systems:
Botmill has probably the worst record of any 3D supplier:
http://forums.reprap.org/read.php?1,60035