The merger of Stratasys and Objet is now a done deal. And as an investor in Stratasys, I could not be happier that the complimentary technologies of each company have come together under one investable entity (symbol SSYS). While the FDM technology invented by Stratasys and PolyJet technology invented by Objet both address much of the same mid- to high-level professional, commercial and industrial markets, each technology lends itself to different applications within those customer bases.

I very much like how this dynamic duo is really focused on the higher end customer base, and not expanding out to too many other areas beyond their core competencies. This is a different tack than competitor 3D Systems (DDD) takes, who has since 2008 acquired 30 companies, in all sorts of various, some quite disparate, areas of 3D printing.

(Speaking of acquisitions, there is some discussion on how 3D Systems accounts for the acquired companies on it’s books, and how that relates to its organic growth rate. Investors might want to read the linked story to try and get a handle on it.)

Two different approaches to growth, both valid. I hope, actually, I believe, that they both will thrive. The market is growing so quickly — faster than growth projections of market analysts in my opinion — that there is plenty of room to prosper. But while I’ve had relatively equal investments in both SSYS and DDD, and while DDD has outperformed SSYS, I’ve rebalanced to an overweight SSYS ratio now. I like a heads-down focus, the narrower the better, in my investments. But that’s just me, there’s no one best approach to stock selection.

Source: Objet blog