- MakerBot has laid off ~20% of its staff, Vice's Motherboard site reports after speaking with an employee. The news comes two months after MakerBot got a new CEO (Stratasys Asia-Pac GM Jonathan Jaglom), and 10 weeks after Stratasys (NASDAQ:SSYS) partly blamed the business for a weak Q4. Motherboard observes (given a 2014 headcount of ~500) about 100 employees might be affected.
- MakerBot, still considered the top player in the SMB/enthusiast segment of the 3D printing market, saw revenue rise only 7% Y/Y in Q4, a much slower rate than Q3's 80%; Jefferies noted extruder issues with MakerBot's latest printers (and the customer backlash they spawned) took a toll. In December, Stratasys took a $102M impairment charge on the unit, which was acquired in 2013 for over $400M.
- In spite of the recent woes, a MakerBot rep suggests the layoffs are due to integration efforts. "It’s consolidating with Stratasys, so it’s economies of scale and looking at duplicate positions and consolidating ... We have a new CEO, so he has a different plan in mind."
-
Update: MakerBot has confirmed the layoffs. "We at MakerBot are reorganizing our business in order to focus on what matters most to our customers. As part of this, we have implemented expense reductions, downsized our staff and closed our three MakerBot retail locations." The Register reports 80 employees at MakerBot's Brooklyn HQ have been laid off.