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Meta puts one over on Valve with ImagineOptix acquisition
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Meta has acquired VR lens specialist ImagineOptix, which probably won’t thrill Valve after it had invested millions of dollars in the company.
It’s been confirmed that Meta, the companyformerly known as Facebook, has reportedly bought ImagineOptix, a small company that makes liquid crystal lenses for AR and VR headsets.
BloggerKarl Guttagfirst noted this acquisition, highlighting the fact that Imagine Optix’s website has disappeared.
This might not sound like massive news in and of itself, but the key point to note here is who else was interested in this company. Namely, pretty much all of the other major names in VR and AR.
According to VR YouTuberBradley Lynch, key VR rival Valve had previously invested some $9 million in ImagineOptix. Not only that, but it had apparently given it a $1 million loan as part of a ‘Master Supply Agreement’, and was clearly betting on the fact that this would secure a supply of next-gen lenses for its future VR headsets.
You can imagine (pun intended) that the home of Half-Life was far from pleased when a key rival swept in and bought the camera from under its nose.
It turns out that Valve had sued ImagineOptix last year after it emerged that a “Globally Recognized Brand” had pumped its own $5 million of investment into the company. The two have since settled.
This major investor could well have been Meta, though Apple has also been mooted as a potential candidate.
It’s all very messy, and an indicator that the current VR and AR battle is likely to be a long and bloody one.
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Jon is a seasoned freelance writer who started covering games and apps in 2007 before expanding into smartphones and consumer tech, dabbling in lifestyle and media coverage along the way. Besides bein…
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Founded in 2003, Trusted Reviews exists to give our readers thorough, unbiased and independent advice on what to buy.
Today, we have millions of users a month from around the world, and assess more than 1,000 products a year.
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
