As on March 25 2014, Facebook announced that it would acquire Oculus VR, the maker of next-generation virtual reality platform, for an approximate total of $2 Billion. The deal will take place in the second quarter of 2014, where Facebook will pay $400 Million in cash and 23.1 Million in shares. The social networking giant is looking forward to blend the experience of immersive 3D technology with social networking. Mark Zukerberg, the CEO of Facebook said that in the near future Facebook users would be able to share the entire experiences and adventures with their friends, instead of just staring at their photos or videos.
The acquisition deal is definitely one-step forward to the future of social networking. Wearing the virtual reality headset, Oculus Rift will allow users to share, play, communicate and read posts in 3D.
The illusion of being physically present in the digital world is possible with virtual reality platform, and Facebook is the first social networking company to experiment with such a technology. Along with anticipating the future, Mark’s innovative idea is just an effort to continue dominating the social communication network.
It was only a month ago that Facebook acquired WatsApp for a staggering $19 Billion. The Oculus acquisition will be another big deal by Facebook within one year.
The combination of two technologies, virtual reality and social networking, has the ability to create most influential social gathering platform ever and extend the existing advantage of Oculus to be used in entertainment, gaming, education, media, communication and various other areas.
Oculus Rift is like a big goggle that covers the eyes of an individual to limit their view on a high-resolution screen that creates 3D pictures. It includes motions sensors, which enables a person to move their head in any direction without having to compromise with the view. At present, the Oculus Rift requires power of a computer but there is a possibility that these headsets will someday work on mobile devices, which will make it easier to experience 3D social networking on the go.
Since its inception in 2012, Oculus sold more than 75,000 headsets to game developers but it has not yet released any headset for consumers. After acquisition, Facebook plans to remodel the Rift hardware and brand it with Facebook logo. In addition, Facebook will fund the company so that they may continue experimenting with different applications and hardware.
