back to article Maker–NOT: 3D printer upstart Makerbot jams, cuts extra 20% of staff

Troubled 3D printer manufacturer Makerbot has announced a second round of layoffs, cutting a further 20 per cent of its staff as part of a major restructuring. "We have achieved a lot as a team, but we have also been impacted by the broader challenges in our industry," said CEO Jonathan Jaglom in a blog post. "For the last …

  1. Mark 85
    WTF?

    So they're laying of the R&D types and other worker bees and reshuffling manglement? Why do companies actually think this will work?

    The old saying: "The purpose of manglement is to protect manglement... everyone else can go to hell" is still in all the corporate's playbooks I guess.

  2. Erik4872

    Top of the bubble!

    I'm old enough to recall the 1999 - 2001 announcements from various Web 1.0 startups that sounded a lot like this. This sounds a whole lot like the founders preparing the company for an acquisition, shortly followed by their personal paydays.

    It's the classic hype cycle - a couple rounds of VC funding, excessive marketing (giving away 3D printers to schools), convincing the pundits to write that this will change the nature of manufacturing, more VC funding, and a slow decline as the bubble deflates. I think 3D printing is cool, and it's a good way to get kids interested in CAD and manufacturing, but startup hubris is legendary, especially when everyone around you is saying "This time it's different!"

    1. Eddy Ito

      Re: Top of the bubble!

      They've already been bought by long time (and expensive) 3D printer maker Stratasys. The VC types have already gotten some coin. What it sounds to me is like Stratasys is going to let it die and brush the dust off it's hands and publicly say "oh well, seems there wasn't a market for cheap 3D printers after all" while in private it's more a matter of "that's one way to eliminate the budget competition".

      1. Gene Cash Silver badge

        Re: Top of the bubble!

        Actually AFAICT, most of the "schmot guyz" left the company the moment it was bought by Stratasys. It's not like there's a dearth of other consumer 3D printer companies to work at.

      2. Naselus

        Re: Top of the bubble!

        "They've already been bought by long time (and expensive) 3D printer maker Stratasys."

        And that was 4-5 years ago, IIRC.

        Makerbot had already lost most of it's credibility and talent even then. Repeated shifts in direction that isolated it from the 3D printing community, a number of decidedly half-baked products, a couple of humiliating climbdowns and a CEO who pretty much pissed off everyone who ever met him (before being parachuted out to Stratasys in the buyout) all mean it's been a failing company for a while now.

  3. Your alien overlord - fear me

    Firing the cheap worker drones but only reshuffling expensive management. Going to save alot of money that.

    If you didn't met your ambitous goals, it is always the managements fault for over ambitous targets. Happened before, will happen in the future.

  4. Elmer Phud

    What?

    World + dog not ready for standard consumer 3D printers yet?

    The 'game changer' not happened?

  5. DropBear
    Facepalm

    Well what else do they expect...

    ...when one can buy 3-4 generic models out of the price of one of theirs (no, it's definitely not "that much better")...?

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Outsourcing production?

    I thought these things were supposed to be able to print copies of themselves ;)

  7. Cryo

    How much growth did they expect when their devices still cost thousands of dollars for something that amounts to little more than a hobby item for most people? Their products are targeted toward a niche group interested in designing things themselves, and there are now lots of other competing devices targeting that same group, with many that perform better or cost less. The vast majority of people simply won't see the worth in spending a thousand dollars or more for a device to print mostly useless trinkets that still need to be cleaned up and detailed following a lengthy and unreliable print process.

    Unless they can make a decent, reliable 3D printer targeting consumers at a price point of a few hundred dollars or so, they'll have a hard time expanding their business much.

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