Luckey Palmer, the controversial 24-year-old co-founder of virtual reality company Oculus, made headlines recently when he left the company now owned by Facebook. The virtual reality pioneer's departure from the social media giant was riddled with various speculations as to why he no longer works there. Interestingly, according to various reports, there are several reasons that could have triggered his departure from one of the world's most popular tech company.
It was 2012 when Luckey founded his company and introduced his virtual reality entertainment product that impressed Mark Zuckerberg. In 2014, Zuckerberg bought Luckey's company for $2 billion and kept Luckey as an employee. Luckey served as a leader for the product development team, modifying and advancing the Oculus brand that by now is facing competition from international companies like the HTC Vive.
Unfortunately, just less than three years after being bought by Facebook, the virtual reality Oculus leader had some unpleasant moments that tainted his reputation. In particular, he made the headlines when it was revealed in September that he was the backer of a conservative group dedicated to posting anti-Hillary Clinton memes. His secretly supporting Trump was also not good for business as most female employees resigned after the fiasco.
According to The Guardian, Luckey's roles in the company were reduced in the wake of the revelation. Aside from his controversial political stand, his company also faced some accusations regarding the originality of his product. As a result, Facebook had to pay $500 million in legal costs.
Another controversy of the Oculus co-founder was his demotion in his own company when target sales have not hit expectations. According to the Business Insider, whether Luckey did quit or was asked to leave Facebook, the company does not say. However, it's safe to say that he gave the company a lot more headaches than it could handle.
