Zuckerberg Reveals Actual Cost of Oculus Acquisition, Indicates $3 Billion Investment Will be Needed Over Next Decade

The current Oculus vs Zenimax trial has been heating up over the past week with both sides giving evidence. Yesterday however saw Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg appear in court, bringing to light more details about the company’s acquisition of Oculus in 2014, and what needs to be done to support virtual reality (VR) over the next few years. 

During his time on the stand Zuckerberg said that Brendan Iribe, then CEO at Oculus – last month he stepped down to head a new internal group focused on mobile – asked for $4 billion USD not $2 billion, reports The New York Times. As announced they settled on the lower figure, but it also turns out Facebook agreed to a further $700 million in compensation to retain key staff whilst offering a further $300 million for hitting specific milestones.

Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook CEO

During questioning the CEO discussed VR and its future, stating: “I don’t think that good virtual reality is fully there yet. It’s going to take five or 10 more years of development before we get to where we all want to go.”

“These things end up being more complex than you think up front. If anything, we may have to invest even more money to get to the goals we had than we had thought up front,” he added.

He then went on to indicate that Facebook would likely have invest $3 billion or more over the next ten years to achieve what it wanted to with VR, seeing it become a viable technology for millions of consumers.

While the case is likely to continue for sometime, in terms or the core debate around whether Oculus used Zenimax technology Zuckerberg was unwavering: “Oculus products are built on Oculus technology.”

As VRFocus learns more about the ongoing trial we’ll let you know.