Metal and carbon fiber company Markforged (best known for the Digital Forge platform) announced today that it has acquired Digital Metal to increase the product line of machines that can produce metal parts. The company was formerly owned by the Swedish metal powder manufacturer Höganäs AB.
This acquisition highlights Markforged’s push into additive manufacturing for industrial customers, and with Digital Metal’s line of powder binders, the company opens up possibilities for manufacturing metal parts large volume, large scale.
“With the acquisition of Digital Metal, Markforged is enhancing our vision of distributed manufacturing by enabling reliable, mass production of metal parts precisely at the point of need. Bringing Digital Metal’s solution to the Digital Forge platform allows us to tackle new applications in healthcare, automotive, luxury goods and other industries,” said Shai Terem, president and chief executive officer. of Markforged said. “The Digital Metal team has created a powerful and scalable solution to complement our existing technologies. I look forward to welcoming their talented people to Markforged.”
Digital Metal was originally founded in 2003, and the company has made a name for itself in metal parts used in consumer products, used in cars, and used in testing and create samples. The company shares that its printer has been used to produce hundreds of thousands of parts
“Markforged’s easy-to-use platform, best-in-class software capabilities and expertise in materials feel like a natural fit for the future,” said Christian Lönne, CEO of Digital Metals. hybrid of our technology. “With Markforged’s experience and reach to the market, we’re confident we’ll be able to develop the technology together and help more manufacturers produce the high volume metal parts they need to drive high productivity and cost savings.”
As part of the transaction, Markforged will pay Höganäs approximately $32 million in cash, plus approximately 4.1 million shares of Markforged common stock. With Markforged stock priced at around $1.90 today, the deal totals about $40 million. The companies are expected to wrap up the merger by the end of the summer.
The industrial 3D printing space has seen some interesting developments recently, as companies are beginning the consolidation phase. Among other things, Protolabs acquired 3D Centers, Desktop Metal snagged EnvisionTEC and Lumentum spent $5.7 billion to acquire Cohere. It’s likely we’ll see more activity in these markets as the use cases for 3D solidify and the industry really finds its way.
