Apparently this acquisition was announced at the Investor Day conference. I wonder whether this is a serious attempt to grow revenue? The article does point out the decimation of Wilsonville SMEs and sale to 3D, which I find ironic - lots of knowledgeable folks.
https://www.3dprintingmedia.network/xerox-acquires-vader/
Attempt to convince Wall Street they have a plan. Vader is like 3 guys, $6M annual at best. No investment has occurred since acquisition. Icahn smokescreen.
Vader was just something to make analysts think there's a plan in motion. The terms were not announced, but estimates have been floated that it was probably less than $10M. This is window dressing to make investors and/or shareholders think there is positive momentum to get out of this hole. Vader has 4 employees and is only a couple of years removed from moving operations out of a basement. It's no lifeline. It's a distraction.
Xerox did have 3D tech, unfortunately the CEO at the time didn't see a value in it and it was sold off in favor of sinking cash into low end services.
I am going to agree with NumbersGuy on this one, Vader isn't going to be a lifeline for Xerox. The products are a nitch for high end machine shops or prototype companies. Or groups that make one of a kind/short runs of something. Unless they get the price down ALOT thats all it will ever be.
My theory, the buy is more to make things look good on paper that Xerox is modernizing itself.
Although Xerox made a big deal about the acquisition of Vader Systems, let's be clear on what Vader Systems was prior to the purchase. As a startup in 2013, the company was founded by a father and son team after the son graduated from the University of Buffalo with a new idea for liquifying metals in conjunction with electromagnetic pulses to create an inkjet-like process for 3D printing with metal. Great idea, but the company has only recently moved out of the family's basement in late 2016. Since the opening of its doors, Vader has only had a couple of sales (although granted, one was to Lockheed Martin). Annual sales were less than $6M/year (on devices that sell for $545k) and the technology is in its infancy. Vader Systems will not be turning Xerox into a "technology powerhouse" anytime soon. Although the details of the acquisition were not released, I think it is safe to assume the acquisition price of Vader systems was <$10 million. Not exactly a blockbuster deal that will have an immediate impact. It's a great idea and a great story for the father/son team, and the local Rochester, NY venture capital companies that invested about $1.5M into the company, but it isn't anything that will have an immediate impact on where Xerox stands today.
The fact that Xerox didn’t have the foresight to develop a 3D printing solution in-house is embarrassing. The prototypes must have been lost in the PARC Docushare repository.
-Sent from my tech powerhouse device