Stratasys from Israel, the manufacturer of higher-end 3D printers, announced that it has merged with the New York based desktop 3D printing manufacturer, MakerBot, with a $403 million stock, it claimed that "this deal could eventually rise to $604 million dependent on performance, and is liable to change the face of the rapidly developing 3-D printing industry."

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According to the TIME Tech, "MakerBot's owners will receive 4.76 million newly issued Stratasys shares and are eligible for another 2.38 million through the end of 2014 if certain performance targets are met. That could raise the purchase price by about $201 million based on Wednesday's closing stock price."

The 3-D printing market analysts believed that the industry has the potential to revolutionize manufacturing, as the printers "are able to make everything from chocolate molds and mouth braces to gun parts by laying down layer upon layer of plastic, metal or other materials."

David Reis, the CEO of Stratasys says: "the market is expected to double by 2016 from a base of about $3 billion this year, both companies are posting strong revenue gains that should outpace the overall industry, as well as hire more employees later this year to boost the expansions." Which we call tell he believes the 3D - printing market potential is huge.

MarkerBot's CEO, Bre Pettis, also says: "even though both of our companies have had a lot of aggressive growth, we're still at the beginning."

Last year in December, Stratasys purchased Israeli competitor Objet, and claimed over thirty thousands printers have been sold to worldwide. It also claimed that MakerBot has sold more than twenty thousands desktop units since 2009.