Former CSULB student sells company for $2 billion

A former Cal State Long Beach student became rich yesterday. Very rich.

College drop out and Oculus Virtual Reality founder Palmer Luckey sold his company, Oculus VR, to Facebook yesterday for $2 billion in cash and stocks.

Luckey’s company received $400 million in cash and $1.6 billion in Facebook stock in the sale.

Oculus VR is best known for the Oculus Rift, a virtually reality headset designed by Luckey, a former CSULB journalism student.

Facebook’s purchase of Oculus VR has Luckey enthusiastic about the thought of virtual reality becoming mainstream.

“When Facebook first approached us about partnering, I was skeptical.  As I learned more about the company and its vision and spoke with Mark [Zuckerburg], the partnership not only made sense, but became the clear and obvious path to delivering virtual reality to everyone,” Luckey said on his Facebook. “Facebook was founded with the vision of making the world a more connected place.  Virtual reality is a medium that allows us to share experiences with others in ways that were never before possible.”

Mark Zuckerburg, CEO of Facebook, said using Oculus VR’s technology will help people become more connected.

“Our mission is to make the world more open and connected. For the past few years, this has mostly meant building mobile apps that help you share with the people you care about,” Zuckerburg said in a statement. “We have a lot more to do on mobile, but at this point we feel we’re in a position where we can start focusing on what platforms will come next to enable even more useful, entertaining and personal experiences.”

Luckey said Facebook will provide additional resources that Oculus VR would not have otherwise.

“The partnership accelerates our vision, allows us to execute on some of our most creative ideas and take risks that were otherwise impossible,” Luckey said. “This is a special moment for the gaming industry — Oculus’ somewhat unpredictable future just became crystal clear: virtual reality is coming, and it’s going to change the way we play games forever.”