3D printing has gone a long way, and it could easily get even better if the brilliant minds behind this industry teamed up. MakerBot products will definitely see a few improvements in the near future, now that the company has acquired startup software company Layer by Layer.
Each merger or acquisition makes the involved parties or the resulting entity stronger than ever before in their respective industry, in a similar way the Planeteers could summon Captain Planet by combining their powers. 3D printing has been a really hot topic in the past few weeks, with HP launching a revolutionary printer, and more recently with the acquisition of Layer By Layer by the maker of the Replicator.
Layer By Layer is a fairly new company, being founded only two years ago. After the acquisition by MakerBot, the startup will be dissolved, and some of the team members will join the buyer. As Layer By Layer was specialized in developing software, it’s this side of things its team members will take care of, remaining for MakerBot to make sure that the hardware they’re making is working perfectly.
“We’re excited to announce the acquisition of Layer By Layer and move forward with the projects we have been working on with the Layer By Layer team. We see this as a major step forward in being able to support not only our licensed content partners with a secure digital rights management system, but other content as well. The team has been working on several really interesting projects and we are excited to implement added features and benefits to the MakerBot 3D Ecosystem,” pointed out Jenny Lawton, acting CEO of MakerBot.
“Since we started Layer By Layer almost two years ago, it has been our goal to push 3D printing forward by building a complete and seamless user experience from finding something you want to print, to actually printing it. We have always strived to make 3D printing a more accessible technology by reducing the barrier to entry with innovations in design and computer science. So, as you probably can tell, we’re incredibly excited to now be working at MakerBot, where we’ll continue to innovate and explore within 3D printing,” added Max Friefeld, co-founder of Layer By Layer.
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