On the heels of its acquisition of popular messaging app WhatsApp, Facebook isn’t done shopping. Mark Zuckerberg announced Tuesday that Facebook has purchased virtual reality firm Oculus VR for roughly $2 billion.
The cost includes $400 million in cash and 23.1 million shares of Facebook stock. The agreement also provides for an additional $300 million earn-out in cash and stock based on the achievement of certain milestones.
Zuckerberg posted to his Facebook timeline about what this means for the company:
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.
Brendan Iribe, Co-Founder and CEO of Oculus VR, commented on the acquisition in a press release:
We are excited to work with Mark and the Facebook team to deliver the very best virtual reality platform in the world. 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.
Facebook will hold a conference call later today to discuss the acquisition.
Source: Inside Facebook
Facebook acquires virtual reality company Oculus VR for $2B
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