Stratasys Ltd: 'Numbers Weren't There' For MakerBot

The 3D printing concern Stratasys Ltd.'s

consumer and desktop, unit which recently fired 20 percent of its staff, will refocus its business on professional and education markets, according to its chief executive. http://motherboard.vice.com/read/remaking-makerbot The market for consumer 3D printing was "smaller than we thought," MakerBot CEO Jonathan Jaglom said in an interview with the technology news site Motherboard. Jaglom was named to head the unit in February and is son of Stratasys Chairman Elchanon Jaglom. Stratasys shares are down about 43 percent during the past three months, partly on a recent first-quarter profit warning. The Rehovot, Israel-based company said last week its first-quarter net loss widened to $4.24 a share, from $0.08 cents a year earlier, mostly on a $197 million impairment charge to reorganize its MakerBot unit. http://investors.stratasys.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=912146 First-quarter net sales grew more than 14 percent to $172.7 million. But product sales fell by 2 percent because of lower MakerBot revenue and also "slow adoption of high-end systems," as well as foreign currency fluctuations. The company doesn't break out sales figures for MarkerBot, which it acquired in 2013 for $403 million. The layoffs of 100 of its 500-person staff and shuttering of MarkerBot's three retail stores are "part of the continued scaling of MakerBot," according to a news release last month. http://www.makerbot.com/blog/2015/04/17/an-anouncement/ "It had to be done for financial justifications," Jaglom told Motherboard. "The numbers were just not there." The company continues to sell its Replicator three-dimensional printers at 500 retail partners including Staples and Home Depot. But MakerBot also halted its 3D Printed Products, which printed products for companies on demand, and its 3D Design Services division, and moved many remaining employees in those divisions to customer service, according to Motherboard.