Interesting developments from Nexa3D: Stratasys has acquired some of their assets.
California-based Nexa3D has marketed several types of 3D printers for industry over the past several years, but unexpectedly stopped operating last year. Rumours of issues at the company swept the 3D print community for a while, especially after a sudden withdrawal from exhibiting at Formnext. Then in December, the company issued a formal statement that they have made a “strategic decision to scale back operations.”
While that left the door open for some type of restart, it was unlikely that it would happen. Now, seven months later, we have an answer: Stratasys is taking over … something.
There are no official press releases on either company’s site as of this writing, although there is a brief blurb on Nexa3D’s site saying just this:
“Moving forward with Stratasys: We’re proud that Stratasys has acquired a collection of our assets. Here’s your next step.”
Several Nexa3D staffers have posted near-identical messages from their LinkedIn accounts about this development, and the official Nexa3D LinkedIn account wrote this:
“Nexa3D is happy to share that Stratasys has acquired a collection of assets from our business, including our IP and some remaining equipment. Customers and partners can expect to receive best-effort support and materials from iSQUARED AG, a wholly owned subsidiary of Stratasys, so they can continue to use their machines. Additionally, they will enjoy access to Stratasys’ advanced additive solutions.”
What can we make of this?
First, it seems that Nexa3D is definitely not coming back. By selling “our IP” and “remaining equipment”, it does not appear they will have anything left to do business with.
Second, it’s not entirely clear whether this announcement covers all of the 3D print processes owned by Nexa3D. The company had made multiple acquisitions, including AddiFab, 3D-Fuel, and Essentium, in addition to resin and SLS devices.
We know that 3D-Fuel has restarted operations on its own in North Dakota independent of Nexa3D, and that AddiFab’s technology concept has been extended in a new company by its original founder, Lasse Staal, in a new venture called 3DPMolds.
That leaves Essentium’s powerful FFF technology as one of the major IP assets acquired by Stratasys. That is quite a powerful move, as Stratasys’ FDM technology competed with Essentium for years, and now they will have access to high-speed FFF (probably now FDM) technology.
This is probably the end of the line for Nexa3D, but it’s good to see that at least some of the technologies developed by several parties will survive.
The 3D printing industry continues to consolidate.
