Facebook Acquires Oculus VR for $2 Billion

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  • Facebook Acquires Oculus VR for $2 Billion

    We're still a week out from April Fool's day, right? Yeah? So this is real? Damn.

    It seems as though Facebook has acquired Oculus VR for $2 billion. This includes $400 million in cash and 23.1 million shares of Facebook common stock (valued at $1.6 billion) with an additional $300 million earn-out in cash and stock based on reaching certain milestones.
    Our mission is to make the world more open and connected. 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. They build virtual reality technology, like the Oculus Rift headset. When you put it on, you enter a completely immersive computer-generated environment, like a game or a movie scene or a place far away. The incredible thing about the technology is that you feel like you're actually present in another place with other people. People who try it say it's different from anything they've ever experienced in their lives.

    Oculus's mission is to enable you to experience the impossible. Their technology opens up the possibility of completely new kinds of experiences.

    Immersive gaming will be the first, and Oculus already has big plans here that won't be changing and we hope to accelerate. The Rift is highly anticipated by the gaming community, and there's a lot of interest from developers in building for this platform. We're going to focus on helping Oculus build out their product and develop partnerships to support more games. Oculus will continue operating independently within Facebook to achieve this.

    But this is just the start. After games, we're going to make Oculus a platform for many other experiences. Imagine enjoying a court side seat at a game, studying in a classroom of students and teachers all over the world or consulting with a doctor face-to-face -- just by putting on goggles in your home.

    This is really a new communication platform. By feeling truly present, you can share unbounded spaces and experiences with the people in your life. Imagine sharing not just moments with your friends online, but entire experiences and adventures.

    These are just some of the potential uses. By working with developers and partners across the industry, together we can build many more. One day, we believe this kind of immersive, augmented reality will become a part of daily life for billions of people.

    Those are the words of Mark Zuckerberg.

    • Shawn Zipay
      #1
      Shawn Zipay commented
      Editing a comment
      And let us not forget that John Carmack now works for Facebook after this.


    • jimykx
      #2
      jimykx commented
      Editing a comment
      I really don't know what to say about this. I'm completely skeptical. I don't know if it is bad or good...

    • thegreatcow
      #3
      thegreatcow commented
      Editing a comment
      Originally posted by jimykx
      I really don't know what to say about this. I'm completely skeptical. I don't know if it is bad or good...
      Same here, I just don't understand how they're going to leverage this technology with Facebook. I dunno about many folks, but I doubt they'd be interested in strapping on VR helmet in the coming years to have a "social" experience. I could see them licensing the technology to game and 3D developers as a means of a revenue stream, but specific to facebook, I'm not seeing a connection here.
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