acquisitions Archives - Perfect 3D Printing Filament

Lubrizol Buys into 3D Printing Parts and Services via Avid Acquisition

The Lubrizol Corporation has purchased Avid Product Development, a 3D printing and engineering services company, marking a significant development for additive materials and the larger industry as a whole.

While it may be best known for its engine oils, Lubrizol is a roughly $6.5 billion specialty chemical company owned by Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway. As such, it is one of a number of chemical producers that have been increasing their stakes in the 3D printing materials space, the biggest of which is BASF. The Ohio-based firm has already released its own additive feedstocks (specifically thermoplastic polyurethanes for fused filament fabrication and Multi Jet Fusion), but this acquisition marks a strong move for Lubrizol, as it expands from a material manufacturer to an engineering, 3D printing and post-processing service provider.

Samples demonstrating Avid’s post-processing capabilities. Image courtesy of Lubrizol.

Based in Loveland, Colorado, Avid offers design for additive manufacturing, as well as prototyping and production using selective laser sintering, Multi Jet Fusion, fused filament fabrication and stereolithography. Additionally, the company provides post-processing for 3D printed parts. The company serves the footwear, consumer goods, industrial and medical segments and won the 2019 Colorado Company to Watch award. According to a press release sent to 3DPrint.com, Lubrizol plans to combine its expertise in materials, applications and testing with the aforementioned offerings from Avid in order to accelerate 3D printing adoption in key industries.

Gert-Jan Nijhuis, General Manager of 3D Printing Solutions at Lubrizol Engineered Materials, said of the deal:

“Lubrizol continues to invest in opportunities that bring new differentiated solutions to our customers. The acquisition of Avid Product Development greatly enhances our ability as a 3D printing solution provider, offering complete product solutions from material development to printing and post processing services, delivering end-use products for our key markets.”

As industrialized nations purportedly strive to shift from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources, oil companies may be looking to supplement demand through petrochemical markets. ExxonMobil admitted as much in a 2018 investor report, stating an expected 30 percent increase in petrochemical demand by 2025.

A flexible TPU part 3D printed by Avid. Image courtesy of Lubrizol.

In turn, not only are we seeing an increasing number of major chemical companies enter the 3D printing industry, but we are seeing them diversify within that space as well. BASF has made the biggest movements, putting money into three different 3D-printed parts makers by partnering with Shapeways, investing in Materialise and acquiring Sculpteo. Mitsubishi Chemicals is also trying its hand at 3D printing parts through a pilot program with AddiFab.

By purchasing Avid, Lubrizol gets out ahead of a number of other chemical companies not described so far, including Dow/DuPont, Eastman, SABIC and more, who seem to be more focused on making materials at this point than using them. However, we have also witnessed a number of investments by companies like DSM and Arkema into new technologies and startups that could greatly expand their foothold in 3D printing once those startups take off.

All of these players are changing the landscape of the 3D printing industry, likely into a more industrially focused space. How that will look in the years to come is anyone’s guess, particularly given the uncertainty of global events at the moment, but the impact will be impossible to overlook.

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BASF Doubles Down on 3D Printing, Buys Sculpteo

BASF has really shaken up the 3D printing industry yet again by buying Sculpteo today. The German chemical giant has previously bought Dutch filament leader Innofill3D, launched a new brand and materials, invested together with Materialise in Essentium, invested in Prismlab, invested in Materialise and bough Advance3D and Setup Solutions. Whereas a few years ago it was 3D Systems that was keeping the M&A lawyers in suits now it seems that dueling polymer firms BASF and DSM are trying to out invest each other in the space. It is these two companies that are making the biggest splashes of late.

Rear-view mirror housing made from BASF Ultrasint PA6 X043 with Farsoon HT403P.

Dr. Dietmar Bender, Managing Director BASF 3D Printing Solutions says,

“Through the acquisition of Sculpteo, we can provide customers and partners with even faster access to our innovative 3D printing solutions. In addition, our customers will benefit from an extended range of services.” “Together with Sculpteo, we are pursuing our goal of establishing additive manufacturing as a proven technology for industrial mass production”

“We are excited to join the BASF team and thus benefit from BASF’s outstanding R&D to provide our customers with innovative solutions”, says Clément Moreau, Sculpteo CEO

BASF Photo-Resin X004M

Terms were not disclosed but the impact of this move will be significant.

BASF is now in the parts business not just in the chemicals business. Does this mean that they will make more parts outside of 3D printing as well? We’ve seen moves as well by Victrex, makes of PEEK, to move from relatively low-value chemistry and polymers towards parts manufacturing. If this trend continues it has a lot of broad implications for many BASF suppliers and customers.
Materialise now has BASF as a partner and investor as well as through Sculpteo as a competitor with 3D printing as a service, this is awkward to say the least and may strain the partnership. If BASF communicated this acquisition well then this should not be an issue.
Will this mean that DSM could buy Shapeways to put itself in the driving seat once again? Or would Shapeways be too expensive?
Perhaps this will unlock a roll-up strategy for some market player by making it valuable for them to buy a series of local service bureaus.
What will Quickparts and Stratasys direct (and other services) do when faced with a company that wants to sell them materials while competing with them? Will services not buy BASF materials any longer? After all, more money for BASF may mean more investment in the highest margin part of their business and this is now Sculpteo.
What will other materials firms such as SABIC and Solvay do? Will they be forced to partner with services as well or take another route and be super platform agnostic?
Will this mean that more OEMs such as HP will invest in platforms as well?
With GKN buying Forecast will we now see a global battle between truly international services?
For Evonik, this will mean loss of the Sculpteo volume but do they stand to lose more if others take over platforms as well?
For Xometry and others, this means that reinvestment prospects have dimmed slightly because investors must be slightly weary to play in the same backyard as manufacturing giants such as GKN and Jabil as well as a chemicals to polymers to parts company such as BASF.
Addup wasn’t interested in buying a French 3D printing company, who knew?
Does this mean that our industry is just a stress ball for large polymer companies? Are the big polymer firms the only players that count now in 3D printing for polymers?

Is this a good deal?

For Sculpteo this exit seems like it was the maximum achievable. Clement and his team have fought hard for years to make Sculpteo more international and to compete with Shapeways, Materialise and others. Assumptions by investors are all based on the assumption that winner takes all. The truth is likely more nuanced, but Clement and his team get a well-earned exit plus lots of skill and polymer expertise to build their business within BASF. We won’t know the purchase price but it seems a solid move rather than trying to wait it out another year and risk getting crushed by new entrants.

For BASF this is an astute move. Higher margin, closer to the customer businesses could give them an edge. I’ve always considered BASF quietly weak in 3D printing because they don’t really understand customers or applications and always insulate themselves from them. By getting in closer they could develop more consumer-friendly and application-ready materials directly. Of all the polymer companies I’ve considered BASF to be brave with their money but the firm has a decided lack of understanding in customer needs and applications when compared to DSM, Sabic, Lehmann Voss, Mitsubishi, and others. Information now flows more directly to and through BASF which may help them. If we look at the bigger picture in polymers then moving from chemicals towards parts puts them at a much better point in the chain and improves their prospects long term.

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CELLINK to Acquire German Startup cytena for 30 Million Euros

Bioprinting company CELLINK announced it has entered into an agreement with the owners of life science company cytena GmbH, of Germany, to acquire all of the company shares for a purchase price of 30.25 million euros (33.8 million dollars) in cash and stock. With the acquisition of cytena, CELLINK could extend its growth phase, and although it is already a leading player in the bioprinting business, there’s a wide variety of other smaller companies that could be acquired attractively and add to its growth. Through cytena’s complimentary technology offering, CELLINK sees great synergies that will support and accelerate their future growth. While cytena customers and partners will obtain benefits in the extended product offering and a stronger global presence.

“We are excited to welcome cytena to the CELLINK family of life-science companies with this strategic acquisition,” suggested Erik Gatenholm, CEO and co-founder of CELLINK. “We are furthering CELLINK’s global commercial strategy by focusing on the pharmaceutical industry and providing the most innovative solutions to researchers around the world. With cytena’s revolutionary technology platforms, we will streamline workflows for our present and future customers, and enhance our presence in the pharmaceutical industry, a strategy that is well-aligned with our vision. Together with Dispendix and cytena, we will be well-positioned to offer comprehensive solutions for both academic and pharmaceutical customers worldwide.”

Founded in 2014, Freiburg-based cytena is a biotech startup that develops a patented single-cell printer technology, which allows for the isolation of single cells in a documented, gentle, and sterile way, enabling researcher to isolate cells for cell line development and to build microtissues faster and more reproducibly. Most of the top ten pharmaceutical companies in the world use the company’s single-cell printers to manufacture biologicals, such as antibodies. The cytena family of single-cell printers consists of laboratory devices for handling and sorting individual viable cells. Created out of the Institute for Microsystems Technology (IMTEK) at the University of Freiburg, cytena has recently raised 3 million euros in Series A funding led by High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF). The new capital has been used to continue developing the company’s single-cell printer lab technology, expand sales activities, and tap into the potential of new applications more quickly.

The deal is in line with CELLINK’s commercial strategy, strengthening its product offering and providing a more complete 3D cell culturing solution. cytena’s products are most suitable for pharmaceutical companies, an area, and market which CELLINK has communicated interest in expanding further into so that with this acquisition, it aims to increase market penetration in the pharmaceutical field. For three years, CELLINK has been supplying 3D bioprinters, pioneering bioinks, rapid dispensers, live-cell imaging systems for developing and commercializing bioprinting technologies to allow researchers to print human tissues for pharmaceutical and cosmetic applications and 3D cell culture models.

CELLINK CEO Erik Gatenholm and cytena CEO Jonas Schoendube during the acquisition agreement

Jonas Schoendube, cytena CEO, said “we are extremely looking forward to being part of the CELLINK family. In CELLINK we have found a great partner, who shares our vision for the company and will help us to further accelerate cytena’s growth. We see interesting synergies in marketing, sales as well as research and development between all four group member companies: cytena GmbH in Germany, cytena Bioprocess Solutions Co. Ltd. in Taiwan, CELLINK in Sweden and the US, as well as Dispendix GmbH in Germany. Our customers and partners will benefit from an extended product offering and a stronger global presence.”

The acquisition agreement stipulates that CELLINK will acquire cytena for 11.4 million euros in cash and 674,678 newly issued shares valued at 18.9 million euros. The transaction will give cytena’s shareholders 5.14 percent of the voting power and 6.9 percent of CELLINK share capital. The purchase price corresponds to a total enterprise value of approximately 27.45 million euros for cytena on a cash–and debt-free basis. Following the acquisition’s completion and the transfer of cytena shares, which is expected to take place on August 6, the startup will retain its current management and will be consolidated in CELLINK’s financial statements for approximately three weeks during the firm’s fourth-quarter 2018/2019. CELLINK also expects that the German-based firm will have a turnaround of approximately 4.5 million euros in 2019, which compared to the 3 million euros of 2018 is quite a recovery.

This is not CELLINK’s first acquisition of a German startup, in 2018, the company acquired biodispensing tech firm Dispendix GmbH for 5 million euros, furthering developments in the pharmaceutical industry. Mergers and acquisitions are certainly happening in the industry, changing the value of the business to shareholders, owners, and other stakeholders, creating synergies and enabling greater market opportunities. With so much on the works in bioprinting, this type of deals might hold big promises for the future.

[Images: CELLINK and cytena]

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Materialise Acquires Engimplan, Enters the Medical Device Market

Materialise is the leader in 3D printing software. Additionally, the firm has a 3D printing service bureau. By leveraging its learnings in manufacturing it can improve its software; while additions to software packages such as 3Matic and Magics can be validated at its own production locations. For years the firm has supported surgeons and medical device manufacturers with software for surgical guides. It has partnered with medical device manufacturers, facilitated surgical planning and printed parts for CMF and other surgeries. Today the firm takes another bold step towards medical 3D printing by acquiring Engimplan.

Materialise today acquired 75% of Engimplan, a Brazil-based medical device manufacturer that is a strong national player making innovative CMF and orthopedic devices with revenues of 6 million euros. Materialise will keep the Engimplan management team in place and continue with a strong focus on the Brazillian market. This is a huge boost for Brazil’s chances of becoming a medical device and 3D printing hub for the region and perhaps the wider world. Materialise will together with Engimplan manufacture 3D printed orthopedic and CMF implants, patient-specific and standard, in Brazil. Materialise has a huge lead over everyone else in surgical planning, translating DICOM and other files into 3D prints, the software chain for medical and printing in surgical guides. Meanwhile, Engimplan is in the, traditionally clubby, medical device industry which could set up Materialise for further local and global success in medical device. With 510K and other approvals on the rise for 3D printed products and with a proactive FDA open to engaging actively with firms to define the new regulatory landscape, this seems like a prescient move by Materialise. Medical device manufacturing itself in ortho will also rise through obesity, people living longer and more developing country people getting access to high-end orthopedic solutions. Other medical device firms, with Striker leading the pack, have invested heavily in 3D printing orthopedics and are developing new polymer and metal orthopedic solutions.

With titanium textures making for good bone adhesion and customization leading to patient-specific solutions that may give better patient outcomes it makes a lot of sense for Materialise to enter this market. To do so in Brazil is a ballsy move betting on the future growth, prosperity and technical sophistication of the South American nation of over 200 million. The local market should be promising for the immediate future. Prosperity would bring many more into the 3D printed prosthetic fold but if prosperity will lag then the middle and richer classes of Brazillian society could still bring many more patients to Engimplan and Materialise. If the team can then grow internationally this will be a great move indeed.

3DPrint.com was given the opportunity to speak with Brigitte de Vet, Vice President and General Manager of Materialise Medical in advance of this transaction. Brigitte was able to tell us that this is a “strategic investment,” where “the Materialise technology in 3D printing will lead to the local production of innovative medical devices in Brazil.”

“The focus will be on the Brazillian market where we could combine our expertise in this large important market with a strong local player for CMF and orthopedics.”

Brigitte felt that this investment was “complementary to existing partnerships with medical device companies, as they will do things in Brazil that they do not do with current partners.” A distinct advantage was that, “this transaction will use the power of 3D printing and the digital backbone to strengthen and leverage global process and product innovation locally.” Materialise, “through having 30 years in the market, the software backbone and certified solutions in this arena will be able to build on Engimplan’s considerable expertise.”

The investment will focus on “Standard implants such as spinal cages but also develop new innovations in patient-specific implants.” She sees that there is a real business case for 3D printed patient-specific implants.

“Depending on the indication there could be a patient-specific solution where there simply is not a standardized solution available. In other cases patients may spend less time in the operating theatre due to the patient-specific implant and this will save the patient, hospital and health system money making the business case for these implants.”

“Patient-specific implants also lead to better planning that is integrated with the software and patient scans which will lead to better procedures. Meanwhile a specific implant also means that the hospital has to have fewer implants in stock and the surgeons immediately have the correct implant at hand.”

This seems like a very wise and bold move from Materialise and places the company is an excellent position to manufacture innovative medical devices and instruments. Patient specific orthopedics are a growing very exciting market and Materialise has just put itself in the driving seat.

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