Mark Zuckerberg took to none other than Facebook this morning to announce his company will be acquiring virtual reality firm Oculus VR for $2 billion in stock and cash.
Companies often buy out other companies to reap the rewards of their technology, ideas, patents, and assets. What’s interesting about this is the speculation behind what Facebook might do with a company that exists in an entirely different space than itself while also having never released a product.
Zuckerberg has stated that he plans for Oculus VR to create “completely new kinds of experiences”, (something we’re pretty sure they were going to do anyway) and that gaming will only be the tip of the iceberg.
The new acquisition has also put Facebook almost instantly in direct competition with Sony, who just announced Project Morpheus, a VR headset for PlayStation 4 that, like Oculus’ Rift platform, has no confirmed release date.
There will be tons of speculation about the Facebook-Oculus deal in the coming weeks and months, and we likely won’t see the fruits of this acquisition for a long time (read: not until 2015), so in the mean time, feast your eyes on the beauty of Zuckerberg’s announcement on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/zuck/posts/10101319050523971