Mark Zuckerberg gave testimony during a lawsuit with ZeniMax about the real cost of Oculus.
The Facebook CEO knows exactly how much his company paid for Oculus, clarifying the higher purchase price at a Texas courthouse.
In Dallas federal court on Tuesday, Zuckerberg took the stand to testify in the intellectual property lawsuit between Facebook-owned Oculus and ZeniMax Media, a company that previously employed a number of Oculus employees, including co-founder Palmer Luckey. ZeniMax alleges that Oculus created their Rift VR headset from misappropriated trade secrets.
During Zuckerberg’s testimony, a ZeniMax attorney directly asked about the price Facebook paid for Oculus. Zuckerberg acknowledged the total consideration was about 50 percent higher than the “approximately $2 billion” announced in a March 2014 release.
Facebook actually paid $3 billion, not $2 billion for Oculus.
So what did this extra billion go to? According to New York Times reporter Mike Issac, Zuckerberg testified that on top of the $2 billion purchase price, $700 million was paid to keep key employees along with a $300 million earn-out based on key milestones.
Hello $3 billion.
So now the question becomes, if Forbes estimated Oculus founder Palmer Luckey’s net worth to be $700 million in 2015 based on the original purchase price figure, in reality, is Luckey a legit billionaire now.
