Announcing its largest acquisition to date, Snap Inc. has acquired the UK-based augmented reality startup WaveOptics for $500 million. The company isn’t new to the Snapchat ecosystem as it is the supplier for the displays used on the latest version of Spectacles, Snap’s AR-powered smart sunglasses.
Half of the deal will be paid for in stock now, and the other half would be settled either in stock or cash two years from now.
The AR startup was founded back in 2014 and has attracted an investment of $65 million to date. The 125 odd people working at the company will now come under the purview of Steen Strand, the head of Snap’s hardware division.
The acquisition comes at the backdrop of Snap CEO Evan Spiegel’s comments on his bullish stand on the future of AR. The company had also unveiled the latest version of Spectacles with spiffy new AR filters last week. The product will be available only to a handful of developers and creators, to begin with.
Before this one, Snap’s biggest acquisition had been Zenly, a company known for its mapping technology, for $213 million a few years ago.
Snap’s share price went up by 0.2% on Friday morning to $57.08 apiece.
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