Markforged co-founder Gregory Mark has called for Formlabs to merge with or acquire his former company.
Mark left Markforged in December 2021, after stepping up to Chairman in October 2020. Prior to that, he served as the CEO of the company he helped to establish back in 2013.
Having operated as a private business for eight years, Markforged listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) via a SPAC in 2021, but this year has twice fallen foul of the NSYE's Rule 802.01C, first in April and then again in November. Rule 802.01C requires listed companies to achieve a minimum average closing price of 1.00 USD per share during a consecutive 30-day trading period - Markforged's share price (which is currently as low as 0.70 USD) hasn't been above 1 USD per share since October 23, 2023.
Since receiving the noncompliance notice for the second time, Markforged has announced it will consider a reverse stock split, which would consolidate the number of existing shares of stock held by shareholders into fewer shares, impacting the stock price without affecting the value.
Mark, however, has taken to LinkedIn to suggest Formlabs CEO Max Lobovsky should move to acquire Markforged, stating that the companies 'would fit nicely together' and that the pair 'have talked about it over the years.' Tagging the Formlabs CEO in the post, he went on to say: "I think you're the right person in 3D printing to custody the tech. Please save MF [Markforged] from the doom spiral. It has good fundamental tech, and there are still great people there who know and love 3D printing." The post was 'liked' by fellow co-founder and former CTO David Benhaim.
Lobovsky replied to the post, saying: "More seriously, I appreciate the kind words from another entrepreneur that built something great. We'd love to see the Formlabs approach brought to all types of digital fabrication. The Formlabs approach requires maniacal focus and putting a lot of effort behind a small number of products. So we have to be careful about spreading ourselves too thin."
There is currently no indication that a merger between the two companies is in the offing, but with Formlabs offering worktop SLA and SLS technology, and Markforged having a focus on worktop polymer, composite and metal extrusion, as well as a larger format composite technology and a metal binder jet offering, the two companies do have complementary technology portfolios. They are also both headquartered in the Boston, Massachusetts area.
