Its raining dollars outside the Oculus VR head offices in Irvine, California as Facebook has dug deep into their pockets for their second multi Billion acquisition in as many months. Facebook has decided to acquire the Virtual Gaming company, Oculus VR for approximately $2 Billion. The $2 Billion is split up as $400 Million in cash and 23.1 Million shares of Facebook common stock which is valued at about $1.6 Billion. Not just this, there is an additional $300 Million earn out in cash based on certain performance achievements.
Facebook added in their Blog post announcing the acquisition that it plans to extend Oculus’ existing advantage to newer verticals, not only in the world of games, but multimedia, communication and entertainment. Que in the jokes of how a head shake would now help you like Facebook posts and rotating head would allow sharing them.
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg said, “Mobile is the platform of today, and now we’re also getting ready for the platforms of tomorrow, Oculus has the chance to create the most social platform ever, and change the way we work, play and communicate.”
Just like Whatsapp, the Oculus team will continue to reside in their current office and continue to work independently on their current products in the VR world. Brendan Iribe, co-founder and CEO of Oculus VR said, “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.”
The talk of the acquisition began months ago when Mark landed at Oculus’ offices. The Oculus official Blog post explains the acquisition: “A few months ago, Mark, Chris, and Cory from the Facebook team came down to visit our office, see the latest demos, and discuss how we could work together to bring our vision to millions of people. As we talked more, we discovered the two teams shared an even deeper vision of creating a new platform for interaction that allows billions of people to connect in a way never before possible.”
It is obvious that the Oculus team is excited and really looking forward to team up with Facebook, the blog post adds, “This partnership is one of the most important moments for virtual reality: it gives us the best shot at truly changing the world. It opens doors to new opportunities and partnerships, reduces risk on the manufacturing and work capital side, allows us to publish more made-for-VR content, and lets us focus on what we do best: solving hard engineering challenges and delivering the future of VR.”
