AfterDawn: Tech news

Facebook looks forward and purchases Oculus VR, maker of the Oculus Rift, for over $2 billion

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 25 Mar 2014 9:16 User comments (2)

Facebook looks forward and purchases Oculus VR, maker of the Oculus Rift, for over $2 billion Facebook has looked to the long-term and will be purchasing Oculus VR for $2 billion, mainly in stock.
The company makes the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset which has just been sent out to developers and is ushering in a new generation of gaming.

Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, confirmed the deal, which will be $400 million in cash and another 23.1 million shares of Facebook stock. Why did Facebook make the investment? Zuckerberg says:

This is where Oculus comes in. They build virtual reality technology, like the Oculus Rift headset. When you put it on, you enter a completely immersive computer-generated environment, like a game or a movie scene or a place far away. The incredible thing about the technology is that you feel like you're actually present in another place with other people. People who try it say it's different from anything they've ever experienced in their lives.



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.


Many in the industry were very surprised by the move, which had not been rumored or speculated on in any capacity. Sony also just revealed their VR headset, "Project Morpheus," which will link up to the PS4. You can read Oculus' response here.

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2 user comments

126.3.2014 12:40

Part of me is jealous and the BIGGER part of me is lamely fascinated by FB's worth and value and how they throw money around here and there, often frivolously,...........all based off a shitty website with little security, no flow and a slew of nonsense time-wasters that people are mysteriously drawn to for some odd reason.

I have a whopping 29 friends and login to FB MAYBE once every 4-6 months.......if that.

Jealousy stems from my desire to start up a lame, UGLY, rather incoherent website that attracts hoards of mindless, unproductive, time-wasting MORONS.

228.3.2014 22:15

Originally posted by hearme0:
Part of me is jealous and the BIGGER part of me is lamely fascinated by FB's worth and value and how they throw money around here and there, often frivolously,...........all based off a shitty website with little security, no flow and a slew of nonsense time-wasters that people are mysteriously drawn to for some odd reason.

I have a whopping 29 friends and login to FB MAYBE once every 4-6 months.......if that.

Jealousy stems from my desire to start up a lame, UGLY, rather incoherent website that attracts hoards of mindless, unproductive, time-wasting MORONS.

Yes you make tons of sense...not.
Facebook has helped people build massive businesses and followings. It is no different than using commercials to draw in buyers of new product. This isn't Facebook from 2008. Advertisers make a killing using FB, i should know. Also, some of the morons that are on Facebook are also some of the smartest morons because many page owners are scientist, doctors, computer engineers, professors, stupidly successful marketers so forth and so on.

Yes i see your point that every person that has a FB account is a moron.

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