Israeli 3D printing company Nano Dimension (Nasdaq: NNDM) has raised its bid to purchase Israeli polymer 3D solutions company Stratasys (Nasdaq: SSYS) shares from $18 per share in cash to $19.55. Stratasys has confirmed receipt of the unsolicited, non-binding acquisition proposal, which reflects a 38.6% premium on Tuesday night's closing price on Wall Street, and a company valuation of $1.2 billion.
Yesterday, Stratasys's share price jumped 13.82% to $16.06. Nano Dimension, led by CEO Yoav Stern, already holds a 14.5% in Stratasys and earlier this month became an activist shareholder in the company by demanding to influence its business moves. Last summer Nano Dimension became a party at interest in the company and in response Stratasys, led by CEO Dr. Yoav Zeif adopted a limited duration shareholders rights plan (poison pill) approach to prevent a takeover.
This mechanism comes into operation if any company reaches a 15% holding in Stratasys. In an attempt to avoid this, Nano Dimension is now offering to buy all Stratasys's shares so that the shareholders will ultimately decide matters, providing the offer becomes binding.
Nano Dimension raised $1.5 billion on Nasdaq during the peak of the tech boom in 2020-2021, and still has more than $1 billion cash in its coffers for acquisitions, even though its market cap stands at only $800 million.
At the same time, Nano Dimension itself has been the target of a takeover by one of its activist investors, Canadian investment firm Murchinson, which has sought to oust some of the Israeli company's directors in favor of its own candidates. It may be that emptying its coffers through a major acquisition will quell Murchinson's motivation to takeover Nano Dimension.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on March 30, 2023.
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