Stratasys announced Wednesday that it plans to buy privately held companies Solid Concepts, Inc., and Harvest Technologies and will merge them with its own manufacturing subsidiary.
 
Eden Prairie-based Stratasys—a manufacturer of 3D printers and materials for personal use, prototyping, and production—said it’s acquiring Valencia, California-based Solid Concepts for up to $295 million and Belton, Texas-based Harvest Technologies for an undisclosed sum. Stratasys is paying Solid Concepts $172 million on the closing of the deal—which is expected early in the third quarter—and will then make deferred payments of $60 million and up to $63 million in retention-related payments.
 
Stratasys said Solid Concepts has 450 employees and generated around $65 million in 2013 revenue and that Harvest Technology has about 80 employees.

 
Solid Concepts bills itself as the “largest independent additive manufacturing service bureau in North America” and is already partner of Eden Prairie-based RedEye, Stratasys’ existing additive manufacturing subsidiary. The company said it would combine Solid Concepts and Harvest Technologies with RedEye to establish a single business unit after the deal closes. Joe Allison, president of Solid Concepts, will lead the combined business.
 
“With Solid Concepts and Harvest Technologies, together with RedEye, we expect to create a strategic platform to meet our customers’ additive manufacturing requirements by significantly expanding our offering, targeting new applications, and strengthening our customer relationships,” Stratasys CEO David Reis said in a statement. “These transactions are consistent with our core strategic imperatives and [merger and acquisition] strategy, which is focused on acquiring leading companies to support our goal of continued leadership in the segments in which we operate, as well as reaching new niche verticals.”
 
Mergers and acquisitions have been a major part of Stratasys’ rapid growth. The company underwent a massive expansion in 2012 when it merged with a competitor, Israel-based Objet, Ltd., to form what then became a company with combined equity value of $1.4 billion.
 
In August, it completed another merger, with Brooklyn, New York-based 3D printing competitor MakerBot, for $403 million.

Stratasys now has more than 1,800 employees and holds about 550 granted or pending manufacturing patents globally. Click here to learn more about other recent Stratasys business developments.

Shares of Stratasys’ stock were trading up about 0.5 percent at $111.53 during Wednesday morning trading. Its stock has risen nearly 55 percent over the last year.