打飞机受阻，金属3D打印巨头SLM嫌价格低，通用电气摊上事了

在南极熊眼里，通用电气是高端3D打印应用得最好的例子，目前已经购买了数十台金属3D打印机，天天在打飞机零部件，特别是喷油嘴。

前不久，工业巨头通用电气（GE）宣布将以14亿美元收购德国SLM Solutions和瑞典Arcam两家领先的金属3D打印企业，一举震惊了整个3D打印界，南极熊的这篇报道，关注人数超过30万。对此，很多业内人士都是非常激动，认为这终于代表着3D打印技术要跻身主流了。不过最近，这笔交易却遇到了阻碍 — 持有SLM公司20%股份的对冲基金公司Elliot Management（EM）对GE每股38欧元的报价不满，不同意收购（南极熊备注：随后SLM的股价就暴跌了11%；而且这个对冲基金经常做出这样的事情：事情差不多敲定了，出来搞一下，要求提高报价）。这就令这笔可能是3D打印界有史以来最具意义的交易蒙上了一层阴影。

现在南极熊得到最新情报，这笔交易可能真的要流产了，因为GE已经宣布确定不会改变现有的报价并且表示，如果不能与SLM的股东谈妥，他们宁可放弃收购，毕竟有实力的金属3D打印企业不止SLM一家。而且，与Arcam的交易目前也是个未知数，因为EM也持有这家公司的股票，而且份额还不少，为10.14%，所以该基金很可能也会以同样的理由反对。

对冲基金公司Elliot Management拥有着Paul Singer

事实上到目前为止，已经有约34%的SLM公司股东接受了GE的报价，包括其大部分主要股东和董事长Hans Joachim Ihde。但要实现交易，这个比例还不够，必须提高到超过75%，所以持有20%股份的EM是很占优势的，不过这其实全部要归罪于EM的拥有者Paul Singer，因为此人一直都有“实现大笔投资很有希望被收购的企业，然后在收购时提高价格以获取更多暴利”的不良习惯。

事已至此，如果Paul Singer仍坚持反对，那么这笔交易的失败应该是可以肯定的了。不过这对于GE来说或许并没有什么影响，因为就像前文所说，有实力的金属3D打印企业不止SLM（或许还应该加上Arcam）。虽然这两家公司目前在航空航天的3D打印市场占有最大的份额，而GE刚好最关注这方面。

另外，这对于3D打印界的发展来说或许也没什么影响，因为此次收购已经表明了GE对3D打印，尤其是金属3D打印的看重。事实上这位全球电气工业巨头已经明确表态希望到2020年将其3D打印业务的年收益提高到10亿美元。所以就算与两家公司的交易均告失败，相信他们也会很快锁定其它目标的。或许他们已经在这样做了。所以对于这一场闹剧，就让我们静观其变吧！请关注南极熊3D打印网。

通用电气（GE）电话会议录音整理：砸14亿美元收购金属3D打印Arcam和SLM

完整版录音整理，请到南极熊3D打印网下载http://www.nanjixiong.com/thread-74328-2-1.html

以下是部分收购会议的录音文字版

SEPTEMBER 06, 2016 / 12:30PM GMT, GE - General Electric Co Conference Call to Discuss

Acquisition of Arcam AB and SLM Solutions Group AG

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Jeff Immelt - General Electric Company - Chairman & CEO

Thanks, Matt, and good morning. We wanted to give investors some context for the two high-tech acquisitions we announced today in additive manufacturing

equipment and services: SLM based in Germany and Arcam based in Sweden. With the foundation of these investments combined with our substantial commitment in

advanced manufacturing we plan to enter the market for additive manufacturing equipment, materials, services, software and production.

In addition, we will expand our development of additive innovation across GE and in our installed base. This move fits the GE business model and adds to our strategy

to become the premier digital industrial Company. We have an integrated core of strong industrial businesses, ones that build, power, move and cure the world.

We leverage our enterprise strengths: data created by R&D scale, a common global footprint, service technology, Predix, financing and culture. And we're moving from

strength to strength as we build positions in industrial analytics and now in additive manufacturing. These represent foundational capabilities for industrial companies in

the future.

Through our investments we're creating horizontal capabilities and vertical businesses. And by doing so we're driving productivity for GE, our customers and the

industrial world.

We view additive manufacturing as transformative technology to expand product design, flexibility and promote speed. It facilitates the manufacturing of highly valued

parts. It can dramatically improve service delivery and asset management.

Importantly, these tools are a perfect match for GE capability and gives us a lead in one of the fastest growing industrial markets of this era.

Let me go into a little more detail on our plan. We plan to launch in the additive manufacturing business. We will offer a full line of products, we will fully leverage our

existing ecosystem inside GE including product design and internal consumption.

We will build a strong service business including materials, design, software and production. Many of these capabilities already exist inside GE and all of our products

will embed the capability of Predix and will be an important part of our Brilliant Factory initiative. We expect the business to have about $300 million of revenue in

2017 and grow quickly to $1 billion by 2020.

In addition, it should facilitate $3 billion to $5 billion of costout inside GE over time. This investment is in line with the strategy of the Company. We have a valuable

industrial Company with strong businesses and big ecosystems.

We've created value through the enterprise at the GE Store. We are leading the digital transition of industry, creating both horizontal capability and new businesses. And

our aim is to achieve substantial productivity for GE and our customers.

We will remain on track for our financial framework in 2016 and the bridge to 2018. We plan to have these businesses report to Dave Joyce in Aviation. While their

usage will span the Company, David is our biggest practitioner and I will now turn the presentation over to Dave and the team.

David Joyce - General Electric Company - SVP & President and CEO, GE Aviation

Thanks, Jeff. We've been on a journey of discovery with additive technology for quite some time at GE and it accelerated significantly after we bought Morris and

RQM in 2012. Since then we've become more convinced at the transformational opportunity that additive brings based on our own proof points.

The left-hand side of this chart is meant to give you a perspective on why additive. Today's manufacturing processes are castings, forgings, weldings, brazings and

subtractive machining. Additive creates products by building up features and complicated geometries from powder layer by layer.

Additive changes the game because it changes the paradigm between the cost of manufacturing and the complexity of design. Designers can optimize for performance

and productivity with new and better cost entitlements and faster cycles.

We are using additive in a LEAP engine today and our assessment over the life of the LEAP production is that additive can yield a 25% to 30% additional reduction in

product cost entitlement and a 25% reduction in lifecycle cost and service. In our Advanced Turboprop Engine we've eliminated 845 parts in design incorporating

additive. This represents an elimination of thousands of machining features and inspections and hundreds of quality plans and procurement contracts.

As I stated this productivity can be transformational. This next page uses a turbine frame assembly in one of our jet engine development programs as an example of the

enterprise productivity. Incorporating additive manufacturing the frame assembly can be created in one design file produced by eight engineers, manufactured and

inspected using one additive machine and will be repaired at one source with access to all design and manufacturing information linked through Predix.

Now compare that to today's conventional assembly, managed through 40 disparate data systems, 300 individual parts designed by 60 engineers and manufactured at

over 50 sources, and in service sent out to five sources for repair. We believe this turbine frame assembly story is a good proxy for the future of digital industrial

manufacturing.

Now let me turn it over to Greg Morris to talk about the industry. Greg joined the GE Aviation family in 2012 when we acquired his companies, Morris Technologies

and RQM.

Greg Morris - General Electric Company - GE Aviation Additive Technology Leader

Thank you, David. We see four primary industry drivers that create the value train: machines, materials, production and services. Primary among these is the

maturation and advancement of the equipment capabilities.

Current laser and electron beam technology is very capable but in order to achieve mass adoption we will need to take machine productivity and speeds to a new level.

For each step change in machine speed and size the number of parts that become candidates for additive multiplies exponentially.

We also believe there are a number of opportunities to incorporate advanced sensing and monitoring capabilities into future machines that will result in unparalleled

part consistency and quality. We anticipate that the different processing modalities that these acquisitions provide in addition to the equipment advances that have been

outlined will allow us to protect current machine margins while delivering superior quality and value to customers.

Closely linked to the machines are the metal powders used in the process. With these two acquisitions and other partnerships, we will build on our direct material

production capability. This combined with GE's strong materials research and development history provides an opportunity for us to create next-generation materials

that are tailored specifically to the additive process.

Material volumes will grow in lockstep with the number of machines fielded that in turn will drive material pricing down, creating a more competitive landscape and

further allowing for the democratization of additive parts. Given GE's leadership position both in the additive ecosystem as well as our deep materials domain

knowledge we will lead the development of industry standards critical to creating the foundation from which all practitioners can build on.

Another area of significant synergy is our ability to move these technologies from the R&D and prototype-oriented phase into the production environment. Over the

course of the past five years our Aviation and Power businesses in particular have been applying their production know-how and expertise to existing additive

technologies, incorporating automation and inspection capabilities critical to successfully industrializing the processes. Automation and fully production-capable

machines enable the Brilliant Factory and brings part conversion productivity to a new level.

Finally, a substantial opportunity exists around the services component of additive where we can leverage our application engineering knowledge and wrap this into our

Predix digital platform. This will create value for our customers in a multitude of ways including the creation of a seamless digital thread and an opportunity for

customers to shorten their production learning curves by acquiring the experience GE has gained from our ramping up of additive production internally. The industries

where additive has the opportunity to bring substantial value are primarily segments we know well, thus allowing us to leverage our experience for maximum benefit of

customers.

Back to you, David.

David Joyce - General Electric Company - SVP & President and CEO, GE Aviation

Thanks, Greg. As we assess the market in additive we see machines growing by 20% CAGR through the middle of the next decade and services, including materials

and software, growing to over $10 billion in seven years. The modalities associated with additive are developing fast based on the speed and feature resolution of the

application.

We are starting the equipment business in two segments: the largest laser powder bed through SLM. This technology uses laser melting to micro weld the powder layer

by layer, creating additive parts. The second company, Arcam, is in a very fast growing segment of electron beam melting to micro weld the powder and build parts,

two very complementary technologies that have a variety of applications across multiple business segments.

We, of course, will continue to apply our research and development to all modalities at our global research centers. By these two acquisitions give us a great start in this

rapidly developing industry. Now I will turn it over to Vic.

Vic Abate - General Electric Company - SVP & Chief Technology Officer

Thanks, David. As we look at all the various additive technologies and think about the entire ecosystem we see all roads lead through the machine. And at GE machine

design is at the center of what we do across the Company.

Shown here are the key high-tech components for the SLM Solutions platform as well as the Arcam machines. Central to their capabilities are technologies which

include lasers, electron beams, scanning heads and controls. The ability to control the additive process coupled with the understanding of material science is at the core

of these technologies.

Each brings capabilities and allows us to trade for attributes like build speed and feature accuracy which are critical for the adoption of additive.

Down below is an illustrative example of how we think about additive machines. Similar to our Healthcare business where we use high-tech components and advanced

materials and software to look inside the human body we see many parallels in the design and evolution of additive machines. The ability to build from particles,

sophisticated parts and the evolution of those platforms through upgrades and software is limitless.

Now back to you, David.

David Joyce - General Electric Company - SVP & President and CEO, GE Aviation

Thanks, Vic. As we assess the market for additive powders growing at more than 25% CAGR metals represent approximately 12% which by 2020 we estimate could

be as high as one-quarter of the additive powder industry. These material systems are very familiar to our GE Industrial businesses and research centers.

Six of our businesses are using powder today and we have currently almost 350 patents in this material space. We're confident that we can accelerate material and alloy

development and certifications of material properties, all driving adoption across multiple industries. Arcam is a leading provider of premium titanium powder to the

additive manufacturing customers.

So now let me turn it over to Vic again.

Vic Abate - General Electric Company - SVP & Chief Technology Officer

Thanks, David. This chart illustrates why we believe we are in great position to lead in additive technology. Over the past few years we have built a tremendous

network of teams in sites who are advancing additive manufacturing for GE every day.

As we have increased the use of additively-produced parts across the Company we have not only grown the number of people engaged but we've also significantly

enhanced the competencies necessary to be the additive leader. And we view the additive ecosystem from idea all the way through a certified part.

We've rapidly build out the GE additive store, starting with the depth of GE research in both Niskayuna and Germany where we have deep domain knowledge in areas

such as material sciences, laser physics and controls. Our acquisition of Morris Technologies in Cincinnati, Ohio has been a catalyst for us in driving the adoption of

additive parts given their application engineering and design expertise in additive. Earlier this year we opened our GE Center for Additive Technology Advancement in

Pittsburgh which focuses on factory design and the industrialization of additive technologies at scale.

From the ability to design a broad range of components to fundamental research on additive processes and materials to industrialization of machines, factory designs

and software GE now touches all parts of the ecosystem in multiple modalities of additive manufacturing.