Oculus掌门人详解Facebook收购内幕

    马克•扎克伯格的收购都有一个固定的套路：他们从来不会泄密，因为他们能够迅速达成一致。例如，Facebook以190亿美元收购WhatsApp的交易，在情人节当天吃着巧克力草莓就敲定了细节。四天后，交易对外公布。一个月以后，Facebook斥资20亿美元收购虚拟现实游戏公司Oculus VR，双方在扎克伯格家里用餐的时候确定了该笔交易。一周内交易完成。

    收购Oculus的过程从2月份开始。当时，马克•扎克伯格邀请Oculus的CEO布兰登•艾利布聊了十分钟。扎克伯格询问艾利布，Oculus头戴设备的“杀手级应用”是什么，艾利布回答说是游戏，但他暗示虚拟现实也可以用于通信。他邀请扎克伯格试用了一款头戴设备和游戏演示，最后他又飞往Facebook总部，向扎克伯格、Facebook产品副总裁克里斯•考克斯和首席技术官迈克•斯科洛普夫展示了Oculus Crystal Cove原型机。

    一个月后，艾利布邀请扎克伯格前往加州尔湾市的Oculus办公室，向他展示了公司最新开发的面向消费者的原型机。Oculus对于这款设备非常自豪，因为用过该设备的用户，很少出现迷失方向的情况（早期虚拟现实头戴设备普遍存在这个问题）。

    艾利布在上周的纽约F.ounders 大会上说：“这款设备已经非常接近人们对于虚拟现实的想象。亲身体验之后，你会对这项技术的广阔前景充满信心。”正如游戏行业传奇人物、Oculus首席技术官约翰•卡马克所说：“等你亲眼看到它时，你就会相信它有多强大。”

    扎克伯格确实有这样的体会。据艾利布回忆，试用了Oculus的头戴设备之后，扎克伯格说：“这是我见过的最酷的东西，或许以后也不会有比它更酷的东西出现了。”之后，他问道：“我能提供什么帮助？”

    艾利布说，他不确定Facebook应用的浮动窗口在虚拟现实中是否会受到欢迎。

    扎克伯格说：“我不是这个意思。我们希望帮助你。你还有哪些比较大的问题？”

    艾利布解释说，Oculus需要打造一个生态系统，同时还需要建立基础设施为产品提供支持。扎克伯格回应说，Facebook对平台和用户“略知一二”。

    艾利布还解释或，Oculus需要大规模融资，完善硬件。Oculus最初出名的原因是它使用手机零件制造出了整台设备。很明显，如果配备订制屏幕、光学器件和传感器，产品会变得更好。但这些都需要巨额投资。这家公司计划融资5至10亿美元，艾利布戏称“这超出了我的工资水平。”扎克伯格告诉他，Facebook也可以帮忙解决这个问题，因为Facebook“可以赚很多钱。”

    艾利布表示，两位CEO对许多事情产生了一致的看法，但“并未谈到具体数字”（指价格），所以，Oculus决定保持独立。他说：“Facebook没有正式出价，但我们心中对自己这家成立20个月的公司已经有一个极高的价格。”

    Zuckerberg won over Oculus with his vision for virtual reality as the next big platform.

    Mark Zuckerberg's acquisitions have a formula: They never, ever leak because they come together quickly. Facebook's (FB) $19 billion acquisition of WhatsApp, for example, was reportedly sealed over chocolate-covered strawberries on Valentines Day, and the deal announced four days later. One month after that, Facebook's $2 billion deal for Oculus VR was solidified over dinner at Zuckerberg's home. Within the week, the deal was done.

    The wooing process for Oculus started last February when Mark Zuckerberg called CEO Brendan Iribe for a 10-minute chat. Zuckerberg asked Iribe what the "killer app" for the Oculus headset would be; Iribe told him it was gaming, but hinted that there would also be an opportunity to use virtual reality for communication. He pushed Zuckerberg to get a headset and demo, eventually flying up to Facebook's headquarters to show off Oculus' Crystal Cove prototype to Zuckerberg, Chris Cox, Facebook's vice president of product, and CTO Mike Schroepfer.

    A month later, Iribe invited Zuckerberg down to Oculus' offices in Irvine, Calif., to show off the company's latest consumer-facing prototype. Oculus is particularly proud of this prototype because very few people who use it experience disorientation (a common problem with earlier versions of the headset).

    It's "very close to the vision everyone's had for VR," said Iribe, who was speaking at theF.ounders conference in New York last week. "When you see it, you start to believe how big this could really be." As John Carmack, Oculus' CTO and a legend in the gaming industry, likes to say: "You get religion on contact."

    That definitely happened for Zuckerberg. According to Iribe, after trying the headset, Zuckerberg said, "So that was probably one of the coolest things I've ever seen in my life, and maybe ever will see." He followed that declaration with a question: "How can I help?"

    Iribe said he wasn't sure that a floating window of a Facebook app would be very popular in virtual reality.

    "That's not what I'm talking about," Zuckerberg said. "We'd like to help you. What other big problems do you have?"

    Iribe explained that Oculus needed to create an ecosystem and support it with an infrastructure. Zuckerberg responded that Facebook knows a thing or two about platforms and users.

    Iribe also explained that Oculus was going to have to raise a lot more money to get its hardware right. Oculus' early claim to fame was that the entire device was built out of cell phone parts. But it became apparent that the product would be much better if it had custom screens, optics and sensors. That requires an enormous investment. The company was going to have to raise half a billion to a billion dollars, which was, Iribe joked, "above my paygrade." Zuckerberg told him Facebook could help with that problem, too, as the company "tends to make a lot of money."

    Iribe said the two CEOs started to see eye-to-eye on a lot of things, but "the number wasn't quite there," (meaning the price), so Oculus decided to stay independent. "They never made a formal offer, but we did have a pretty big number in mind for a 20-month-old company," he said.