3D printing company Stratasys (SSYS -2.24%) is now in play, and investors quickly got into the action on Tuesday. On news that a peer has made a preliminary offer at a generous premium, those folks piled into the stock and pushed its price 13% higher on the day. That was well above the 0.4% increase of the S&P 500 index across the trading session.
Buyout offer received
On Sunday, Stratasys divulged in a press release that it received an unsolicited, preliminary buyout offer from specialty electronics company Nano Dimension (NNDM -4.10%) at a price of $16.50 per share. That's nearly 26% higher than Stratasys' most recent closing stock price.
The announcement came less than three months after Stratasys launched a review of strategic alternatives for its future. Typically, when a company speaks of "strategic alternatives," it is considering a sale, among other business-saving measures.
In its press release on the Nano Dimension, Stratasys took pains to say that this offer does not guarantee a deal will occur. The 3D printing technology supplier added that it does not aim to disclose further developments "unless and until it determines that such disclosure is appropriate or necessary."
The leap could have been higher
The market had the usual reaction to an attractively priced buyout, but in the case of Stratasys/Nano Dimension there seems to be a degree of skepticism -- after all, the former stock closed at $14.82 per share. While this represented a double-digit jump, it still fell well short of Nano Dimension's offer price. Perhaps some potential profit-takers are adopting a wait-and-see stance to this preliminary bid.
