Meta’s New Optics Advantage; Untangling a Messy Quest Sales Story

It’s time to add another company to the list of Meta’s acquisitions in the AR/VR industry. Meta has acquired ImagineOptix, a small North Carolina-based team specializing in liquid crystal lenses, Meta confirms. This may prove to be a coup for the company’s hardware division, although it’s not clear whether Meta will have the regulatory leeway to make further deals like this.

Meta officially acknowledged the acquisition following a write-up of the deal by optics analyst Karl Guttag on his personal blog. We don’t know what Meta paid. What we do know is that ImagineOptix’s work on liquid crystal technology may prove invaluable to Meta. The company makes thin, lightweight liquid crystal components that could be used in place of thicker lenses made of glass or plastic, which could both help reduce the size of VR headsets and allow for optical elements that can electronically change focus.