Facebook to buy the virtual reality technology company Oculus VR for $2 billion

Facebook announced Tuesday that it has agreed to buy the virtual reality technology company Oculus VR, which makes the Oculus Rift headset, for about $2 billion in cash and stock.

The 18-month-old Oculus is at the forefront of the emerging VR industry, getting its start on Kickstarter, and has made an open-source sweetheart out of the Oculus Rift. The company just announced its final development kit for the Rift last week at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, ahead of its official release, the date of which is unknown.

Facebook's latest billion-dollar buy closely follows its deal to purchase messaging application WhatsApp for $19 billion in cash and stock. The social network also made headlines two years ago when it picked up Instagram for about $1 billion. The photo and video app has ballooned to 200 million monthly active users under Facebook's care.

The $2-billion deal for Oculus is expected to close in the second quarter of this year.

Facebook said that with the acquisition, it plans to extend Oculus' virtual reality capabilities beyond gaming into areas such as communications, media, entertainment, and education. Facebook, according to CEO Mark Zuckerberg, views virtual reality as the next big thing in social.

Tags: Internet, Facebook, oculus VR,Gaming, Mark Zuckerberg,  Kickstarter

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