Wird GrabCAD Stratasys´s professionelles Thingiverse? – Update: Statasys überbot Adobe und AutoCAD

In einer Pressemeldung bestätigte Stratasys den Kauf der GrabCAD online Platform.

16.September 2014 – Stratasys kauft die privat geführte online Platform GrabCAD. Hardi Meybaum, der Gründer und CEO von GrabCAD wird die Firma weiter als Teil des Unternehmens Stratasys führen.

GrabCAD verbindet über 1,5 Millionen User und Ingenieure miteinander. Diese können CAD Datein online zugänglich machen und sich darüber austauschen bzw bearbeiten.

Stratasys (SSYS), a leading global provider of 3D printing and additive manufacturing solutions, today announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire privately-held GrabCAD, Inc. in an all-cash transaction.

Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. The transaction is expected to be completed by the end of September, subject to the fulfillment of customary closing conditions. Upon completion of the transaction, GrabCAD will operate as a unit within the Stratasys Global Products and Technology Group. Hardi Meybaum, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of GrabCAD, will continue to lead GrabCAD within the group.

Founded in 2010 and led by Mr. Meybaum, a visionary entrepreneur and pioneer in 3D CAD cloud collaboration tools, GrabCAD is helping engineers get products to market faster by connecting people, content and technology. GrabCAD offers GrabCAD Workbench, a cloud-based collaboration tool that enables engineers and designers to share, view and manage CAD files and other design data. GrabCAD is also home to a community of more than 1.5 million members from around the world who can access a large public CAD file library as well as connect with other engineers.

The acquisition is expected to enable Stratasys to provide its customers with enhanced collaboration tools and improved accessibility relating to 3D CAD content. The addition of GrabCAD Workbench provides Stratasys with an opportunity to drive communication and ease of use throughout the 3D printing process and grow its technology solutions and user communities.

“The addition of GrabCAD provides Stratasys with a leading cloud-based collaboration platform for engineering teams to manage, share and view CAD files,” said David Reis, Stratasys Chief Executive Officer. “By increasing the collaboration and accessibility of 3D CAD files, we believe we can further accelerate the adoption of 3D printing solutions and Stratasys’ product offerings. Together with GrabCAD, we believe that we will accelerate innovation and provide increased value to a growing universe of customers seeking to utilize 3D printing solutions. We also welcome GrabCAD’s active and important community to the Stratasys family. The potential within our 3D ecosystem is very exciting.”

“GrabCAD was founded to bring the world’s engineers together and help them collaborate to bring better products to market faster,” said Hardi Meybaum, Chief Executive Officer of GrabCAD. “By joining forces with Stratasys, a global leader in 3D printing and additive manufacturing, we believe we can extend the reach of one of the most exciting and innovative design collaboration technologies available. With its broad and growing customer base and worldwide presence, Stratasys can provide more customers around the world with exciting new solutions to meet their design needs.”

Benefits of the Transaction

Through its acquisition of GrabCAD, Stratasys expects to gain:

• Knowledge: With the addition of GrabCAD, Stratasys gains an industry leading team of software professionals with a deep understanding of the needs of designers and engineers.
• Products: GrabCAD’s cloud-based collaboration platform, Workbench, will enable Stratasys to offer customers a solution to drive communication and ease of use throughout the design and 3D printing process. GrabCAD also provides Stratasys with the opportunity to further partner with CAD vendors and other ecosystem partners while offering innovative collaboration tools related to 3D CAD.
• Community: GrabCAD has built a global, leading and fast growing community of mechanical engineers and designers, with 1.5 million users who are passionate about design. This includes a large online community of M-CAD users and a significant public online repository of free CAD files, with more than 500,000 CAD designs available for download and nearly 50,000 file downloads per day.

via Stratasys

19.September – Update: Deal soll 100 Millionen US$ kosten

Die amerikanische online News Site, TechCrunch berichtet von bestätigen Angeboten von rund 100 Millionen $ für das “Social Network” GrabCAD. Damit soll Stratasys andere Interessenten, wie Adobe und AutoCAD ausgestochen haben.

“This is part of what got us excited about it. The value of what the GrabCAD network brought was so clear,” said David Skok, a general partner at investor Matrix, which was an investor in several of GrabCAD’s rounds. “So often the value [in social networks] is not, but what GrabCAD did early on was address the concept of engineer drawings. Drawing a model without a preexisting idea is very hard, so there is a very concrete value for participants.” And there was an added benefit, he says: every time someone uploaded something new, GrabCAD got another long-term search term into Google, “creating a viral effect to increase the community.”

Die Vorteile des Deals sind für Stratasys klar. Zum einen bekommen sie eine funktionierende Cloud Platform für CAD Dateien und zum anderen eine riesige Ansammlung (1,5 Mio. User) von Design begeisterten Ingenieuren und Technikern, die auch in Zukunft nicht auf GrabCAD verzichten werden.

via TechCrunch