Facebook isn’t just buying into mobile messaging — it’s also going for gaming.
In a Tuesday afternoon shocker, Facebook announced it is buying hot virtual reality gaming company Oculus VR for $2 billion. That includes $400 million in cash and 23.1 million shares of Facebook stock. There’s also an additional $300 million potential earn-out in cash and stock based on “the achievement of certain milestones.”
Fresh off Facebook’s $19 billion purchase of WhatsApp, CEO Mark Zuckerberg is showing the world that he isn’t afraid to use his company’s skyrocketing share price to get an edge in Silicon Valley. Facebook stock is up over 150% in the last year and both the WhatsApp and Oculus deals took advantage of that with large stock-cash splits.
Facebook will acquire virtual-reality technology company Oculus VR for $2 billion, the social-networking giant announced Tuesday. Oculus makes the Oculus Rift, a virtual-reality headset originally funded on Kickstarter.
For now, the Oculus team’s focus will remain on gaming. Facebook chief financial officer David Ebersman told investors that the $2 billion valuation of the company was based on gaming opportunities alone, and it’s not a lonely field: Sony revealed its own virtual-reality headset last week and Microsoft has recently expressed interest in the technology.
“We feel like we should be looking ahead and thinking about what the next platforms are going to be,” Zuckerberg said. “We think vision is going to be the next really big platform.”
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