Oculus acquisition complete
Regulators approve Facebook’s acquisition of Oculus. Facebook bought Oculus for $2 billion in March 2014, but it takes time for state and local anti-trust teams to approve the acquisition. The companies release a joint statement:
We’re looking forward to an exciting future together building the next computing platform and reimagining the way people communicate.
Acquires LiveRail
Facebook acquires LiveRail, an advertising technology company that creates video ads for websites and apps. LiveRail customers include companies such as Major League Baseball, Gannett, DailyMotion and ABC Family.
We believe that LiveRail, Facebook and the premium publishers it serves have an opportunity to make video ads better and more relevant for the hundreds of millions of people who watch digital video every month.
Hires ex-PayPal president
Facebook hires David Marcus as the vice president of its mobile messaging division. Marcus previously worked with PayPal, first as the vice president of the company’s mobile department and most recently as the company’s president.
We are incredibly excited to work together with David and to learn from all his experience, and David will be sharing more about his work in the coming months. Welcome aboard!
Joins Facebook board
After a period of speculation, Andreessen officially joins Facebook’s board of directors alongside Mark Zuckerberg, Jim Breyer, and Peter Thiel. The official press release calls Andreessen’s venture Ning, “a complementary platform to Facebook,” rather than a potential rival. Andressen says:
Facebook is one of the most innovative companies on the Web and it’s an honor to join the board. I’m looking forward to helping the team as Facebook continues to grow.
Zuckerberg, Winklevoss’ meet
The brothers and Narendra meet Zuckerberg in the dining hall of Harvard’s Kirkland House, where they explain the HarvardConnection website, the plan to expand to other schools after launch, the confidential nature of the project, and the importance of getting there first. During the meeting, Zuckerberg allegedly enters into an oral contract with Narendra and the Winklevosses to become a partner in HarvardConnection.
Although his attorneys have denied that any formal discussion about compensation or ownership of Harvard Connection took place, Gao would later tell the court:
I told him that [Narendra and the Winklevosses] would either pay him on a rolling basis or take him on as a partner with the possibility of taking an equal stake. He became visibly excited. He told me that he wanted the latter option … because he thought the Harvard Connection website had the potential to reach out to a very large user base.
He is given the private server location and password for the unfinished HarvardConnection website and code, with the understanding that he will finish the programming necessary for launch. Zuckerberg allegedly chooses to be compensated in the form of sweat equity.