{"id":8780,"date":"2014-03-26T11:08:10","date_gmt":"2014-03-26T11:08:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/4cd.e16.myftpupload.com\/?p=8780"},"modified":"2014-03-26T11:08:10","modified_gmt":"2014-03-26T11:08:10","slug":"facebook-buys-virtual-reality-headset-start-up-for-2bn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=8780","title":{"rendered":"Facebook buys virtual reality headset start-up for $2bn"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_8784\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-8784\" style=\"width: 624px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/4cd.e16.myftpupload.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/73811286_021595034-2.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-8784\" alt=\"The Oculus Rift headset sends an image of a game's environment to screens placed directly over each eye\" src=\"http:\/\/4cd.e16.myftpupload.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/73811286_021595034-2.jpg\" width=\"624\" height=\"351\" srcset=\"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/73811286_021595034-2.jpg 624w, https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/73811286_021595034-2-300x168.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 624px) 100vw, 624px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-8784\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Oculus Rift headset sends an image of a game&#8217;s environment to screens placed directly over each eye<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Facebook has announced it will buy Oculus VR, a Californian company which specialises in virtual reality products, for around $2bn (\u00a31.2bn).<\/p>\n<p>The start-up&#8217;s flagship product, the Oculus Rift, is a goggle-like &#8220;immersive&#8221; headset for video gaming.<\/p>\n<p>It was developed with funds raised through crowdfunding site Kickstarter, and subsequent investment.<\/p>\n<p>Facebook&#8217;s boss, Mark Zuckerberg, said Oculus&#8217; technologies could &#8220;change the way we work, play and communicate&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>The Oculus Rift has yet to be released, but more than 75,000 orders for development kits have already been placed, according to the social media giant.<\/p>\n<p>In a statement released on Tuesday, Facebook said it plans to expand the use of Oculus technologies to include &#8220;communications, media and entertainment, education and other areas&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>Oculus&#8217; crowdfunding campaign raised $2.4m (\u00a31.5m), 10 times the amount originally sought.<\/p>\n<p>It subsequently received a further $75m from investors.<\/p>\n<p>The Rift headset was widely heralded at the CES technology show in Las Vegas in January, where Sony also announced a rival product.<\/p>\n<p>The deal includes $400m in cash and just over 23 million Facebook shares, valued at $1.6bn.<\/p>\n<p>Oculus employees will also receive an additional $300m if the company achieves certain targets.<\/p>\n<p>Commenting on the deal, Mr Zuckerberg said: &#8220;Mobile is the platform of today, and now we&#8217;re also getting ready for the platforms of tomorrow.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>It is the latest purchase for Facebook, which last month spent $19bn on mobile messaging platform WhatsApp.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Facebook has announced it will buy Oculus VR, a Californian company which specialises in virtual reality products, for around $2bn (\u00a31.2bn). The start-up&#8217;s flagship product, the Oculus Rift, is a goggle-like &#8220;immersive&#8221; headset for video gaming. It was developed with funds raised through crowdfunding site Kickstarter, and subsequent investment. Facebook&#8217;s boss, Mark Zuckerberg, said Oculus&#8217; [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":8784,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[18],"class_list":["post-8780","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-dr-akwasi-osei"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8780","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8780"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8780\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8784"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8780"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8780"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8780"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}