Facebook Buys Oculus Rift for $2 Billion Dollars
Well, I can honestly say I didn’t see this one coming. Facebook has announced the acquisition of the virtual reality headset developer, Oculus Rift, for approximately $2 Billion US dollars in cash and in stock. Facebook has acquired a number of companies over the past few years, but today’s announcement genuinely surprised me — and not in a good way.
I cannot honestly say what this buyout will mean for the Rift, but I hope they keep on the same track and don’t get lost in trying to making this a social media device. The big positive here will be the increase in developers on the device and hopefully an expedited consumer product.
I will say this, if John Carmack leaves Oculus as CTO (Chief Technology Officer), that will be the sign of the demise of the device.
From the shareholder meeting:
“Facebook will acquire Oculus for a total of approximately $2 Billion dollars made up of $400 million in cash and 23.1 million in Facebook shares. The agreement also provides for an additional 300 million dollar earn out to be paid in a mix of cash and stock if Oculus achieves certain milestones. The transaction is expected to close in the second quarter of 2014.”
Source:
http://www.shareholder.com/visitors/event/build3/stage/stage.cfm?mediaid=63723&mediauserid=0
