The battle for control of polymer 3-D printing company Stratasys Ltd. SSYS took yet another turn on Friday, when 3D Systems Corp. DDD confirmed that it has submitted a proposal to take over the company in a cash-and-stock deal that it says would correspond to about $25 per Stratasys share. Rock Hill, S.C.-based 3D systems said it’s offer $7.50 per Stratasys share in cash and 1.2507 newly issued shares. Upon completion, Stratasys shareholders would own 40% of the combined company and receive about $540 million in cash. Based on a set of assumptions including about $100 million in run-rate cost synergies, 3D says the combined company would deliver value of more than $1.84 billion, about $740 million in excess of the company’s fully diluted market cap using a 60-Day VWAP as of May 24, the last trading day prior to Stratasys’ announcement of its proposal to acquire Desktop Metal DM/ That’s about a 70% “value uplift,” said 3D Systems, which said it has delivered the proposal to the Stratasys board on May 30. Earlier this week, the Stratasys board unanimously rejected an $18-a-share partial tender offer from Nano Dimension Ltd., saying the offer “substantially undervalues Stratasys.” The two 3-D printing companies have been locked in a battle since Israel-based Nano Dimension NNDM launched an all-cash bid for Stratasys on March 9 and disclosed that it was Stratasys’s largest shareholder with about 14.5% of the outstanding shares. The board rejected that offer and a sweetened one at $20.05 a share and instead unveiled the Desk Metal deal, which is valued at $1.8 billion. Stratasys stock jumped 10% premarket.
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