It has long been known that the 3D printing industry is going through difficult times, which sometimes manifests itself more spectacularly, such as company collapses, and sometimes a little less. In this case, it is a sale of the entire Desktop Metal system by Shapeways. The value of the equipment sold is estimated at $5 million and includes printers, purification stations and furnaces.
The auction will be conducted by Heritage Global Partners, a leading consulting company specializing in fixed asset management for many industries. The auction will take place on February 26 this year. It is worth mentioning that the same company has already organized an auction of Desktop Metal equipment for Shapeways worth $4 million in October 2023. We do not know the reasons for this intense sale, but we can guess that the Desktop Metal technology did not meet Shapeways’ expectations in the service environment or the company is focusing on on the most profitable systems taking into account financial results that are below expectations.
Shapeways was founded in 2007, and made its stock exchange debut through merger 14 years later in 2021. At that time, the valuation of the new entity was $605 million. Forecasts and plans for the near future were very optimistic and assumed a sales increase of 95% between 2021 and 2022. Operating profit was to reach $107 million in 2023, and revenues this year and in 2024 were to amount to $150 million and $250 million, respectively. However, the reality turned out to be far from expectations. Revenues in 2023 will be below $35 million, and in 2022, revenues will reach $33.2 million and the profit will be negative. The loss amounted to as much as $20.2 million. As a result of this deteriorating performance, especially in relation to high ambitions, Shapeways’ valuation has fallen from $86.60 per share in January 2021 to just $1.93 today.
Source: www.3dprintingindustry.com