????Facebook的交易正在成為傳奇。過去幾個月，馬克?扎克伯格剛剛斥資190億美元收購了一款通信應用，又有報道稱他正計劃以6,000萬美元收購一家無人機公司。3月26日，他宣布了Facebook最新的驚人之舉：20億美元收購虛擬現實頭戴游戲設備Oculus Rift的制造商Oculus VR。

????這是Facebook第三次用十億美元以上的代價收購一家收入很少、甚至沒有任何收入的公司，同時計劃維持公司的獨立運營。（Oculus已經賣出了75,000套預定開發包，約獲得2,600萬美元收入。）

????Facebook稱，它將支付4億美元現金，以及價值16億美元的2,310萬股Facebook普通股。此外，這筆交易包括3億美元的盈利能力條款，實現特定目標可獲得現金和股份。Oculus在眾籌網站Kickstarter上開始創業，后來從星火資本（Spark Capital）、經緯創投（Matrix Partners）、創始人基金（Founders Fund）、Formation 8、BIG Ventures 和安德森?霍洛維茨（Andreessen Horowitz）獲得共計9,340萬美元風險投資。

????那么，Facebook為什么收購Oculus？它是Facebook應對谷歌眼鏡（Google Glass）的答案嗎？是該社交網絡為了給自己注入創新元素所進行的一次孤注一擲的嘗試嗎？還是Oculus VR傳奇CTO約翰?卡馬克的一次玩世不恭的游戲？Facebook是否希望借此填補由Zynga造成的游戲收入缺口？

????根據扎克伯格在Facebook發布的信息來看，他將Oculus Rift視為一種通信平臺。Oculus公司及其75名員工將保持獨立，繼續開發虛擬現實游戲平臺。（這也是Facebook第三次偏離自己的人才收購策略，即徹底關閉收購的公司——另外兩個案例分別是Instagram和WhatsApp。）不過，Facebook對于Oculus的野心可不止在游戲領域：

????除了游戲之外，我們將把Oculus打造成提供其他體驗的平臺。想象一下，只要坐在家里的帶上虛擬現實眼鏡，便可以像在現場一樣享受比賽，可以與來自世界各地的同學和老師在一個教室里學習，或者可以面對面咨詢醫生。

????Oculus團隊在公司的博客中響應了扎克伯格的觀點：

????最初，人們可能很難理解Oculus為什么會與Facebook合作，因為Facebook一直致力于人與人之間的聯系，投資互聯網連接和推動開放計算平臺。但仔細想想，你會發現，兩家公司在文化上是一致的，我們都致力于創新和招募最優秀的人才；我們相信溝通能夠推動新平臺的出現；我們希望為更開放的互聯世界做出貢獻；我們都認為虛擬現實將是下一個平臺。

????Oculus 公司CEO布蘭登?艾瑞布在討論這宗交易的電話會議上表示，公司已經解決了圍繞游戲和娛樂的“許多難題”，所以通過虛擬現實實現社交體驗的潛力已經顯而易見。

????艾瑞布說：“有些東西將會徹底改變，如果你能看到其他人，真正地看著他們，而且你的大腦相信他們就在你面前，而不是坐在屏幕前面，你就會意識到它的前景是多么廣闊……你會渾身起雞皮疙瘩。你將看到它巨大的潛力，它的社交性，以及它對其他行業的影響。”

????Facebook的股票在盤后交易中小幅下跌了0.88%。

????經緯創投投資人安東尼奧?羅德里格斯（同時也是Oculus Rift的早期投資人）注意到，扎克伯格認為計算領域的下一步將是使用虛擬現實，支持這種觀點的大有人在。他說：“有了增強現實技術，比如谷歌眼鏡等設備，我們已經獲得了初步發展。但許多非游戲應用都僅限于智能手機。”

????羅德里格斯補充說：“五年以后，如果大家不再使用顯示器，而是戴著一副Oculus Facebook眼鏡，我絕不會有什么大驚小怪的。”（財富中文網）

????譯者：劉進龍/汪皓

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????Facebook's deals are becoming the stuff of legend. In the last few months alone, Mark Zuckerberg has spent $19 billion on a messaging app, and reports say he's paying $60 million for a drone company. Today he announced Facebook's latest head-scratcher: $2 billion for Oculus VR, the maker a virtual reality gaming headset called Oculus Rift.

????It marks the third time Facebook has paid a billion dollars or more for a company with little to no revenue, with plans for it to operate independently. (Oculus has sold 75,000 pre-orders for development kits, which cost $350, giving it approximately $26 million in income.)

????Facebook (FB) will pay $400 million in cash, with 23.1 million shares of Facebook common stock valued at $1.6 billion, the company said. In addition, the deal includes a $300 million earn-out in cash and stock. Oculus got its start on Kickstarter, but went on to raise $93.4 million in venture funding from Spark Capital, Matrix Partners, Founders Fund, Formation 8, BIG Ventures and Andreessen Horowitz.

????So: Why? Is Oculus Facebook's answer to Google Glass? Is it the social network's desperate attempt to inject itself with fresh innovation? Is it a cynical play for Oculus VR's legendary CTO, John Carmack? Does Facebook want to fill a Zynga-shaped hole in its games-related revenue?

????According to a Facebook post from Zuckerberg, he views Oculus Rift as a communication platform. The company and its 75 employees will operate independently from Facebook and continue its path of developing a platform for virtual reality games. (This, by the way, marks the third time Facebook has veered from its acqui-hire strategy of shutting down the companies it acquires -- the other two are Instagram and WhatsApp.) But Facebook's vision for Oculus is much bigger than games:

????After games, we're going to make Oculus a platform for many other experiences. Imagine enjoying a court side seat at a game, studying in a classroom of students and teachers all over the world or consulting with a doctor face-to-face -- just by putting on goggles in your home.

????The team at Oculus echoed Zuckerberg's sentiment in their own blog post:

????At first glance, it might not seem obvious why Oculus is partnering with Facebook, a company focused on connecting people, investing in internet access for the world and pushing an open computing platform. But when you consider it more carefully, we're culturally aligned with a focus on innovating and hiring the best and brightest; we believe communication drives new platforms; we want to contribute to a more open, connected world; and we both see virtual reality as the next step.

????On a conference call discussing the deal, Oculus CEO Brendan Aribe said that as company solved "a lot of the hard problems," around gaming and entertainment, the potential for a social experience through virtual reality became really obvious.

????"Something fundamentally changes and you start to realize how big this could be if you can see someone else, and you can actually look at them and your brain believes they're right in front of you, not through a screen ... "You get the goosebumps. You see how big this could be, and how social it is, and the impact it could have on other industries," Aribe said.

????Shares of Facebook were slightly down by 0.88% in after hours trading.

????Antonio Rodriguez, an investor with Matrix Partners (and early investor in Oculus Rift), noted that Zuckerberg isn't alone in his thinking that the next major step in computing will use virtual reality. "We've had a short hop through augmented reality, with things like Google Glass," he said. "But a lot of non-gaming use cases are tethered to the smartphone."

????Rodriguez added, "I would not be surprised if, in five years from now, instead of a monitor on that desk, you have a pair of Oculus Facebook googles."