What happened
Shares of Trine Acquisition Corp (TRNE), a special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC, surged in early trading Wednesday and are now up 13.2% at 1 p.m. EDT after the company announced that it will purchase and take public additive manufacturer Desktop Metal in a reverse merger IPO.
So what
Trine explained that Desktop Metal "is a leader in mass production and turnkey additive manufacturing solutions, offering the fastest metal 3D printing technology in the market, up to 100x the speed of legacy technologies."
Image source: Getty Images.
Ford (F -0.22%) seems to agree. In 2018, the Michigan automaker invested $65 million of its own money in Desktop Metal, joining a list of prior investors in the company that included everyone from BMW to GE and Google -- and additive-manufacturing pioneer Stratasys, as well. All of these strategic investors, by the way, will be retaining their stakes in the company (which will add up to 74% ownership) as Desktop Metal joins the public markets under ticker symbol DM on the New York Stock Exchange.
As for Trine, it will be investing $300 million of its own cash in Desktop Metal, and organizing a further $275 million in investments via a private investment in public equity, or "PIPE" sale of shares at $10 apiece.
Now what
When all is said and done, Trine says that between its and others' investments, Desktop Metal will carry "an estimated post-transaction equity value of up to $2.5 billion" once the reverse merger takes effect and the company begins trading on the NYSE in Q4 2020.