Facebook has been given the go-ahead from the Federal Trade Commission to purchase virtual reality start-up Oculus VR Inc. (via Reuters). CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced Facebook’s plan to buy Oculus on March 25 for $2 billion as part of an effort to plant the company’s flag early on “the platforms of tomorrow.”
The Oculus purchase is Facebook’s first foray into hardware, and it has generated a considerable amount of backlash from the company’s Kickstarter backer community, including a high-profile withdrawal of support from Minecraft creator Marcus “Notch” Persson. The FTC and Department of Justice’s approval may be the final nail in the coffin for held-out hopes that the deal may collapse.
This comes close on the tail of Facebook’s announced purchase of messaging service WhatsApp in February for $1 billion, much like their much-discussed purchase of Instagram in 2012 for another $1 billion. In addition to buying up technologies further and further afield from the social network’s original purpose, Facebook has also announced sinister-sounding ambitions to bring the Internet to everyone using “drones, satellites, and lasers.”
Clearly, Zuckerberg’s company has joined Google in the race to first become our dystopian technocrat overlord.
Editors' Recommendations
- One year later, my PlayStation VR2 is collecting dust
- Impressive mixed-reality laser tag game may be VR’s new ace in the hole
- Don’t buy the Meta Quest Pro for gaming. It’s a metaverse headset first
- PlayStation VR2 will include see-through view and broadcasting options
- You don’t need a Facebook account to use your Oculus Quest 2 anymore
