Last week 3D Systems did something unusual: they sold off 7,500,000 shares of their stock at a price of USD$40 each. Around 17.5% of these shares were held by "certain selling stockholders", while the rest were owned by 3D Systems itself. This raised company coffers by a massive USD$300M.
Companies just don't do this for fun. They do it to raise money to spend on something.
What costs USD$300M?
We suspect they're shopping for another company, as does a report in Seeking Alpha. The report by contributor Mikko Dahlbom suggests 3D Systems could benefit by picking up Swedish Arcam AB, currently with a market capitalization at over USD$1B according to Google. The USD$300M would go a long way to purchasing a big chunk of Arcam, especially when combined with stock swaps or other arrangements.
But why Arcam? Arcam's technology portfolio includes "Electron Beam Melting" for 3D printing metal, a technology (and material) not currently available from 3D Systems.
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