Facebook is making big bets for its future. The company has reached a definitive agreement to acquire Oculus VR, makers of the virtual reality prototype headset Oculus Rift for approximately $2 billion. This includes $400 million in cash and around $1.6 billion worth of Facebook common shares. (23.1 million shares at an average closing price of $69.35 per share). The agreement also includes a provision for an additional $300 million earn-out in cash & stock based on the achievement of certain milestones and the transaction is expected to close in Q2 2014. This acquisition comes just a month after it acquired the mobile messaging app WhatsApp for approximately $19 billion in cash & stock. However, it's worth noting that Oculus Rift is still a prototype and is yet to be released commercially. Interestingly, TechCrunch cites sources to say this deal happened in just five days during the recently concluded Game Developer Conference in San Francisco. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that Oculus will continue to operate independently within Facebook and will initially focus on gaming. They will continue the development of Oculus Rift. After gaming, they will be expanding Oculus to other verticals like communications, media and entertainment and education, in a bid to develop a new augmented reality-based communication platform. Oculus Rift to become cheaper & better In an interview to Polygon, Oculus founders said this deal will potentially allow Oculus Rift to become cheaper and better, since Facebook has the money and pull that will make hardware companies listen and they will have the ability to order components…
