Facebook to acquire the creators of Oculus Rift

Facebook is set to purchase Oculus VR, a virtual reality headset company best known for its Oculus Rift gaming device, in an unexpected $2 billion dollar deal expected to close in the second quarter of this year. 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.

Facebook has announced it will be acquiring Oculus VR, makers of the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset. The agreement, worth approximately $2 billion, is split down between $400 million in cash and 23.1 million shares of Facebook common stock currently worth $1.6 billion, with an extra $300 million cash and stock earn-out on top for achieving certain milestones. Launched as a Kickstarter crowdfunding effort in mid-2012 and raising $2.4 million, Oculus VR has so far received more than 75,000 orders for the Oculus Rift, with the company having also revealed a second-generation of its developer kit last week. Over its lifetime it received a funding round of $16 million followed by $75 million, and counts gaming luminary John Carmack as its Chief Technology Officer.