Head of Facebook's Oculus steps down to lead new PC VR unit

[December 14, 2016]  (Reuters) - The chief executive of Oculus, Facebook Inc's virtual reality business, said on Tuesday he would step down to head a newly created personal computer-focused VR division within Oculus.

Brendan Iribe displays a virtual reality headset during an event in San Francisco, California June 11, 2015. REUTERS/Robert Galbraith
 

Brendan Iribe said in a blog post that Oculus is also creating a unit focused on mobile VR, which will be led by software head, Jon Thomason.

"With this new role, I can dive back into engineering and product development ... pushing the state of VR forward with Rift, research and computer vision," Iribe said.

Oculus started shipping its highly awaited Rift headset, which retails for $599, in March. It competes with Sony Corp's PlayStation VR headset and HTC Corp's Vive.

Iribe said he and Thomason would work with Facebook Chief Technology Officer Mike Schroepfer to find a new leader for Oculus.

Facebook paid $2 billion for Oculus in 2014, believing it to be the next major computing platform. Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said in October that Oculus would spend $500 million to fund VR content development.

Oculus is working on an affordable standalone VR headset not tethered to PCs or consoles.

(Reporting by Anya George Tharakan in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D'Souza)

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