Hartland-based Midwest Composite Technologies has acquired Oakland-based Fathom, a manufacturing firm that combines additive and legacy manufacturing techniques.
The deal, terms of which were not disclosed, gives the combined company more than 80 3D printing machines across six different technologies in plastics and metal, a total of 15 different manufacturing methods, more than 150,000 square feet of space and 135 employees.
MCT specializes in helping companies with new product development and low-volume production.
Ryan Martin, chief executive officer of MCT, said Fathom is “an incredibly complementary company” for MCT and both businesses take a similar approach to working with customers from engineering to prototyping and production.
“Both of our companies are still really regionally focused, but they don’t need to be,” Martin said, noting MCT and Fathom share few if any overlapping customers.
The plan is to continue to operate Fathom’s facilities in Oakland and Seattle while MCT’s Hartland facility remains the company headquarters.
“This is a very exciting time for Fathom, especially given the growing demand for dynamic additive manufacturing services to transform how products are designed and manufactured,” said Rich Stump, a principal and co-founder of Fathom. “We believe the combination with MCT and support from CORE will give the combined platform considerable scale and the financial resources to invest in cutting-edge technologies and infrastructure to be the most accelerated manufacturer of prototypes and production parts.”
MCT itself was acquired in September 2018 CORE Industrial Partners, a Chicago private equity firm. Martin was named CEO in January.
He said acquisition was always part of the plan for growing MCT into a national player in additive manufacturing.
“We really surveyed the entire market that was out there,” Martin said, adding that Fathom was the most synergistic opportunity as the companies were aligned well in their approach to customers.
MCT will continue to look for additional acquisition opportunities, Martin said. He said finding good cultural fits would likely be the most important factor in finding potential acquisition targets followed by addressing gaps in the company’s offering in areas like technology, process, software offering or even customer base.
Winston & Strawn LLP provided legal representation to CORE and MCT in the transaction. Stifel Global Technology Group acted as exclusive financial advisor to FATHOM in connection with this transaction.
