Quote Originally Posted by KDog View Post
No ABE, I wouldn't have sold. You think that money means everything to all people? Those guys were living large at a company they started and built with the help of the open source community. They made their own decisions and did their own thing. This is about greed. If they weren't already, before the sale, they were well on their way to a financial success that most of us can only dream about running an open source company. They didn't need to do this and they shouldn't have. I predict it will ruin their company as it has already ruined their reputations.
It is always difficult to predict the future. (At least with any accuracy...) But here is what I think happens. KDog's point that they took a great deal of value from the Open Source community and used it to build a business is true. But here is the deal: The Open Source community is still evolving 3D-Printers very fast. The price points for everything is coming down. You have people experimenting with this and that and donating it to the fellow hobbyists. If MakerBot doesn't innovate and produce very real value, they will lose what ever following they have.

Think about it this way: Suppose they do nothing but pilfer the evolving technology that the Open Source community provides. How fast can they incorporate those changes and productize them? How much staff will that take? How long is the Q/A cycle? Besides falling behind, they have huge expenses. If there isn't very real value that they are bringing to the table, the sales are going to fall off.

I guess what I'm saying is even though they leveraged the Open Source work to get the company started, that isn't going to be enough to keep it going. I think they are going to struggle.