Facebook today announced that it has reached a definitive agreement to acquire Oculus VR, Inc., the leader in immersive virtual reality technology, for a total of approximately $2 billion. This includes $400 million in cash and 23.1 million shares of Facebook common stock (valued at $1.6 billion based on the average closing price of the 20 trading days preceding March 21, 2014 of $69.35 per share). The agreement also provides for an additional $300 million earn-out in cash and stock based on the achievement of certain milestones.
What the heck does Facebook need this for? Great news for the Oculus men and women though.
Good news for the people at Occulus maybe, but not so good for consumers. Facebook is not exactly good with hardware (remember the facebook phone?).
And I think that the combination of VR with a company that does not care about privacy at all, will have some very nasty results…
Edited 2014-03-25 22:21 UTC
Prolly to make virtual chat rooms.
Yeah no, I have no idea.
Also $1.6b of stock which I bet they can’t cash out on for years to come, so good luck converting that into anything worthwhile before the bubble bursts.
Get ready for in your Facebook.
Because it’s a super hot tech company making a super hot product that’s about to launch and it has a business model where people give it money to get something they want?
This could be Facebook’s answer to profitability. Facebook don’t have $400M cash, the investors do. Facebook’s hypothetical-money is being used as leverage to purchase a potentially very profitable growth company because investors must be tired of Facebook’s lack of a business model and looming irrelevance.
I believe they call that strategy diversification.
Well, this will stop people from backing kickstarter projects…
unless the perks include shares.
Somehow I don’t see the backers being very happy about this.
Edited 2014-03-26 02:01 UTC
Game developers aren’t happy either, it seems;
http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2014/03/minecraft-dev-halts-talks-wit…
link is jacked up
http://www.osnews.com/prnewswire.com/news-releases/facebook-to-acqu…
link:
http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/facebook-to-acquire-oculus-…
Doesn’t John Carmack work on the rift now?
(edit again. it’s actually the first result on google)
https://www.google.com.au/search?q=john+carmack
Edited 2014-03-26 02:29 UTC
So if you don’t like Google, you can now wear VR hemlet on the street.
Because Google Glass wasn’t unfashionable enough?
And with Facebook’s uber face recognition software…
Social media networks is dying it seems, and this is one of the ways to keep relevant for facebook as users wake up to being the product sold. It is well documented that Facebook is down so much in “real” interacting users that they have resorted to hiring clickfarms in developing countries to hype numbers instead. (do a search for “veritasium facebook fake”)
Facebook is such a toxic name why would you combine it with Oculus that held so much promise? Is Oculus vaporware? This is so stupid. Oculus could have been the third party that is safe to use instead of Sony/Microsoft/Valve/Google.
I liked the Hackaday image to illustrate the event: a thumb in the eye.
With FB not being much a company that fosters open source / open hardware, personally I’m not thrilled with this purchase.
This is one of the few major technology buys recently that makes sense to me.
VR is making a comeback as processing power and display technology are finally up to the task. It’s a logical progression in multi-channel socialisation (which is not the same as social media).
As for Glass, I would say the use case for this is the exact opposite to Glass. Glass is about taking technology, making it hands free, and taking it with you into the world.
This is the the opposite, it’s about bringing the world to your home (via technology).
Edited 2014-03-26 09:01 UTC
Sony just came in their pants over this!
Markus “Notch” Persson summed it up well: “I definitely want to be a part of VR, but I will not work with Facebook. Their motives are too unclear and shifting, and they haven’t historically been a stable platform. There’s nothing about their history that makes me trust them, and that makes them seem creepy to me.”
Minecraft were planning a rift version. They are not any more. Seems to be the common view among game developers.
Personally, I think it’s worrying. There is no company I would trust less in the virtual space than Facebook. The opportunities for abuse are enormous – making subliminal advertising pale to insignificance alongside.
Seriously? Doesn’t seem like the best for Oculus in the long run. But then again I’m not successful in the business world! What do I know? 😉