The virtual reality (VR) startup Oculus, acquired by Facebook in 2014 for $2 billion, is searching for a new CEO. Oculus co-founder Brendan Iribe, who launched the startup in 2012 together with Palmer Luckey, announced that he is stepping down from his CEO role in order to assume the leadership of one of the two new Oculus divisions.
Oculus CEO Steps Down
According to Fortune, Oculus's Rift VR headset requires a powerful PC to operate and for this reason, the decision to split Oculus into two units makes sense. One of the new divisions will be focused on mobile and the other on PCs.
Oculus Rift has become Facebook's centerpiece of the social network's foray into virtual reality. Oculus has already a partnership with Samsung to offer Oculus-related software for the Samsung Gear mobile phone-powered VR headset.
Former Oculus CEO To Lead New PC Unit
The move of the former Oculus CEO has been announced in a blog post on Tuesday, Dec. 13. According to Forbes, Iribe said that the company will be divided into mobile and PC virtual reality groups in order to strengthen development, be more focused and accelerate the development road map.
Iribe explained that he will assume the leadership of the PC group in order to focus on research, Oculus Rift, and computer vision. The mobile VR group will be under the management of Jon Thomason, who joined the company this summer. Facebook CTO Mike Schroepfer will work with Iribe and Thomason to find a new CEO who will lead the entire Oculus team.
In his announcement, Iribe also said that he is looking forward to focusing on engineering and product in his narrowed role, as he missed the day-to-day process of building a new product. He added that he is "thrilled" to facilitate the next leap forward in the virtual reality industry.
