Metaverse: Facebook-parent Meta acquires optics startup Gary Sharp Innovations – Times of India

Despite witnessing losses in billions of dollars, Meta is continuing with metaverse plans and has acquired optics startup Gary Sharp Innovations. The Colorado-based optics R&D will help the company build better VR headsets as well as AR glasses.
As per a newsletter that includes documents filed with the US Patent and Trademark Office, Meta entered a share purchase agreement with Gary Sharp Innovations in June. It also cites a Meta spokesperson as saying, “Gary Sharp Innovations is helping us develop better viewing optics for our AR and VR devices.”
Meta acquisition will allow the company to access multiple patents and patent applications, “including some that describe ways to improve the optics of VR headsets. In addition to IP, Meta also brought on at least some of the startup’s staff.”

The information on the finances involved in the purchase of the startup is unclear. Meta established Reality Labs – the company’s business that produces virtual reality (VR) and AR hardware and software – in Q2 of 2022 by splashing out a total of $301 million.
Companies that Meta has acquired for metaverse project
Last month, the Facebook-parent acquired Luxexcel, a company that makes 3D-printing prescription lenses for smart glasses as a part of efforts to expand its augmented reality (AR) space.
“We’re excited that the Luxexcel team has joined Meta, deepening the existing partnership between the two companies,” The Verge quoted Ryan Moore, the company’s head of financial communications, as saying.
In April, Meta acquired Downpour Interactive, the studio behind the VR game Onward. In June it bought BigBox VR, the maker of Population: One.

Meta Reality Labs investments
Last year, Andrew Bosworth, Meta CTO and Reality Labs head, revealed in a blog post that “about half” of the company’s Reality Labs’ operating expenses are spent on creating AR experiences and the remaining into building VR products.
“It’s a level of investment we believe makes sense for a company committed to staying at the leading edge of one of the most competitive and innovative industries on earth,” Bosworth said in the post.