Facebook co-founder and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg has revealed the real cost of acquiring virtual reality (VR) firm Oculus while testifying in an intellectual property (IP) theft case against the company.
As expected, he told a Dallas court that it was work done by Oculus that made VR into the valuable technology it is today.
“I’m here because I believe [the claims are] false, and it’s important to testify to that,” he said. “The idea that Oculus products are based on someone else’s technology is just wrong.”
Zuckerberg was called as a witness in the second week of a court case brought by ZeniMax Media , which is suing Facebook for $2bn, claiming that Oculus copied its early innovations in VR when developing the Oculus Rift headset.
The only surprising thing revealed in his testimony was that, in addition to the $2bn purchase agreement announced in 2014 , Facebook paid another $1bn in incentives to keep key members of the Oculus team , reports the BBC .
Zuckerberg also revealed that although he has indicated that he sees VR as an integral part of Facebook’s future, he does not think VR technology is ”fully there yet”.
Facebook announced its acquisition of Oculus in 2014 just ahead of the release of Oculus Rift, saying virtual reality technology was a strong candidate to emerge as the next social and communications platform.
