Oculus VR is certainly heating up in the forthcoming virtual reality race, especially coming off a well-received appearance at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco last week. Little did we know, however, how rosy the company’s future would become.
Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Facebook, has announced the acquisition of Oculus VR and its 3D tech, in a deal that’s valuedat a whopping $2 billion ($400 million in cash and 23.1 million shares of stock, plus an additional $300 million in cash and stock if certain goals are met). Zuckerberg wasted no time explaining the terms of the deal in a Facebook post, expressing his excitement in the acquisition.
“Our mission is to make the world more open and connected,” he said. “For the past few years, this has mostly meant building mobile apps that help you share with the people you care about. We have a lot more to do on mobile, but at this point we feel we’re in a position where we can start focusing on what platforms will come next to enable even more useful, entertaining and personal experiences. This is where Oculus comes in.”
Oculus was quite pleased with the deal as well. “We are excited to work with Mark and the Facebook team to deliver the very best virtual reality platform in the world,” said co-founder and CEO of Oculus VR, Brendan Iribe, in a press release. “We believe virtual reality will be heavily defined by social experiences that connect people in magical, new ways. It is a transformative and disruptive technology that enables the world to experience the impossible, and it’s only just the beginning.”
No doubt Oculus VR could now easily contend with the likes of Sony and its Project Morpheus virtual reality set, amongst other competitors, with Facebook in its corner.
Source: Facebook
