Time to put your virtual specs on

What the hell? Who? What? Actually someone had told me a small while back that this was the next big thing, and that it was likely to crush console's as we know them. Your PS3 is so out of date that it might as well be R2-D2 or C-3PO. OK, that is nasty, your PS3 is still as awesome as Schalk Burger. Who IS REALLY awesome! What am I talking about here? Rambling on. Well, it is Facebook and a purchase that probably came from left field. Deep square leg, or make that deep extra cover. Oculus VR is the object of Facebook's attention, and the price range is a whopping 2 billion Dollars. There is a private investor who sits on both boards, and coincidentally Instagram too - Marc Andreessen is his name, he DID NOT participate in the negotiations. Palmer Luckey founded this business in 2012. And Palmer is all of 21 years old. That is it chaps. What were you doing when you were 21? Were you selling a business to Facebook for 2 billion Dollars? No, sadly we were not.


According to a TechCrunch article -> Facebook's $2B Oculus Deal Happened Over The Last Five Days, Oculus has seen orders for 75000 kits. Kits of what? The website explains it all: Oculus VR DK2 Development kit. That specific piece of hardware costs 350 Dollars. The agreement from the consumer side on the developmental kit order is that you agree that this is intended for developers and not a consumer product. It is, as per their website: Next-Generation Virtual Reality Technology. Watch the video of DK2, what it is. It could quite possibly not be your thing at all. In fact, I am pretty sure if you are investing and paying attention to companies, you are probably not involved in the world of virtual reality.

It is a major (I think) deviation away from Facebook's software platforms (Instagram and WhatsApp) and this is hardware. This is not software. Here is the conference call if you want to listen: Facebook to Acquire Oculus. Or, if you do not have half an hour, rather read the press release: Acquisition positions Facebook to accelerate Oculus' growth in gaming, communications and new social experiences. Facebook are talking (in the conference call) about a new platform, the platform of tomorrow.


Presently it is mobile, but Facebook talks about a unique computer generated environment as the next platform, feeling like you are "present". Oculus is meant to make you experience something that is seemingly not possible. So whilst it may not be all gaming, for now it is. Watch out Xbox and PS. Oh, and that thing called Wii, remember that? You could also use these to "visit" the doctor, "watch" a sports event "court-side" or "visit" a place, "shop" at a virtual mall. I can think that this is quite possibly my mothers worst nightmare! Ha-ha. Seemingly everyone thinks this is a good acquisition, using their war chest and "expensive" shares - 1.5 billion Dollars of shares (23 odd million), and the rest cash to identify and bring into the circle all sorts of new products and services. In the near term it will have very little impact on Facebook's revenues or profits, that tells you exactly how MUCH Facebook paid.