Facebook paid $1 billion more for Oculus than previously thought

During proceedings related to ZeniMax’s legal action against Oculus and Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg revealed additional details regarding his company’s 2014 deal to acquire the virtual reality company.

Zuckerberg visited a Dallas, Texas courtroom to testify in the ongoing lawsuit against Oculus by video game publisher Zenimax, which claims the Rift is based on technology John Carmack — who at one point was working for ZeniMax and Oculus at the same time — created while still working for his previous employer.

Facebook revealed that it paid a total of $2 billion USD for Oculus when the transaction was initially announced in 2014. Now, according to Zuckerberg’s testimony, Facebook actually paid an additional $1 billion for the company that consisted of employee retention packages and goal targets. This means Oculus paid a total of $3 billion for the virtual reality headset manufacturer.

Zuckerberg also denied any knowledge of Carmack or Palmer Luckey violating either of their contracts via the social network’s acquisition of Oculus. Tony Sammi, Zenimax’s lawyer in the suit, asked Zuckerberg how quickly the deal was completed.

“So your plan for a $2-point-something billion deal was to begin legal diligence on Friday, and sign the deal on Monday, over a weekend, right?” asked Sammi during legal proceedings. “Yeah,” replied Zuckerberg.

Zenimax is seeking $2 billion in Damages against Facebook. Palmer Luckey and Brendan Iribe, Oculus’ two main co-founders, are set to testify later this week.

ZeniMax claims that Luckey’s Oculus origin story is fabricated and “fanciful.”

Image credit: Flickr — Robert Scoble

[source]Business Insider[/source]