Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Facebook Ordered to Pay $500M in Oculus Lawsuit

variety.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 151 posts

Re: Facebook Ordered to Pay $500M in Oculus Lawsuit

#71

Post by Idontagree »

spatulon wrote: post #68
leggomylibro wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some alarm bells probably did go off, but they were probably silenced fairly quickly with something along the lines of, "but this is really cool and I want to work on it. Plus, it's not like my employer is actively working on a VR that I'd be competing with." And at the end of the day, Carmack isn't the one who is out $500M, is he?

He is personally out $150m, according to the article.

That seems like a lot, I didn't think he was worth that much, maybe I'm undervaluing his net worth. Is there a value for that anywhere?

Re: Facebook Ordered to Pay $500M in Oculus Lawsuit

#72

Post by openmosix »

cpncrunch wrote: post #48
elastic_church wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They sued in 2014 so the clock stops there.

It looks like they sued in May 2014, and the acquisition closed in July 2014, so it looks like facebook just didn't do adequate due diligence.

Or entirely possible they knew about it, dismissed it as "frivolous case" or factored it in the price paid.

Re: Facebook Ordered to Pay $500M in Oculus Lawsuit

#73

Post by teej »

spatulon wrote: post #68
leggomylibro wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some alarm bells probably did go off, but they were probably silenced fairly quickly with something along the lines of, "but this is really cool and I want to work on it. Plus, it's not like my employer is actively working on a VR that I'd be competing with." And at the end of the day, Carmack isn't the one who is out $500M, is he?

He is personally out $150m, according to the article.

The Variety article says Carmack but the TechCrunch article says Iribe. I'm having trouble finding the actual source.

Re: Facebook Ordered to Pay $500M in Oculus Lawsuit

#74

Post by [deleted] »

gshulegaard wrote: post #64
cpncrunch wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It looks like they sued in May 2014, and the acquisition closed in July 2014, so it looks like facebook just didn't do adequate due diligence.

Having filed suit before the FB acquisition, I am a lot less perturbed. But a lot of the negative posturing from ZeniMax during the case still rubs me the wrong way.

[deleted]

Re: Facebook Ordered to Pay $500M in Oculus Lawsuit

#75

Post by Impossible »

jandrese wrote: post #50
elastic_church wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Sad to hear that they think a bunch of litigious assholes deserve $500 million for getting a signature on an NDA. Wait, so if the guy actually abided by the contract he AGREED to, you know as a trustworthy reliable integritable individual, then Zenimax would have the first mover advantage and market lead on this burgeoning market. In this parallel reality that has nothing to do with their ability to execute. They w…

I would be more sympathetic to Zenimax if they had shown any interest at all in VR. Remember Carmack left the company because he couldn't get any traction on VR, even after demoing goddamn DooM on it. To show you just how much Zenimax cares, go and try to buy DooM VR for any platform.

Although this was the case when the lawsuit was filed, Zenimax has since promised more support for VR than many AAA game publishers, and they announced versions of Fallout 4 and DOOM for VR at their E3 press conference in 2016. Although you cannot buy Doom or Fallout VR now, they have shown both VR experiences (running on Vive at Gamescom and PAX), and are promising full VR support for Fallout 4 in the future.

Re: Facebook Ordered to Pay $500M in Oculus Lawsuit

#76

Post by devwastaken »

doctorpangloss wrote: post #27

Large fines like these, even if the facts are clear, do not support competition and seem anti-consumer and anti-innovation. Either the fines should be smaller or the laws changed to better balance what concretely happened: a poaching of a key employee that led to the development of a big product. That being said, Facebook doesn't really seem to have its R&D figured out. It's poisoned by bad leadership. Palmer Luckey…

Being hired to work on projects, using your companies time and money, and then taking that project to another company yourself, is stealing. Stealing is very anti-competative, and massively increases risk in investment. If anything, this case shows that you can steal a companies resources to make your own products, and if its a good idea then lawsuits are just a cost of doing business.

Re: Facebook Ordered to Pay $500M in Oculus Lawsuit

#77

Post by whyileft »

psyc wrote: post #32
modeless wrote: post #22

Good to hear that the jury made the right decision on the ridiculous charges against Carmack. Sad to hear that they think a bunch of litigious assholes deserve $500 million for getting a signature on an NDA.

Zenimax, an investment vehicle for Providence Equity Partners, is literally run by actual lawyers. In the early days of Oculus, Carmack tried to get them interested in VR, and they wanted nothing to do with it. Now all of a sudden Oculus is a result of their tech. They wouldn't even have the slimy case that they have, if not for the fact that Carmack and others used to work there. People can debate the legal technica…

Bingo. First person I found in this entire thread that knows what actually happened.

Re: Facebook Ordered to Pay $500M in Oculus Lawsuit

#78

Post by blazespin »

aresant wrote: post #44

If the original complaint is to be believed(1) - which Juror's found credible -the course of events, tldr was something like this: - Zenimax bought ID software for >$100m(1) on June 24, 2009. - Carmack signed up with Zenimax for an earn-out / golden-handcuffs agreement that ended in June of 2013. - Carmack was enthralled with VR. - Carmack found Palmer via an internet forum, reached out to get a rift to try. - Carmac…

Did the juror agree to all of the line items there?

Re: Facebook Ordered to Pay $500M in Oculus Lawsuit

#80

Post by jclarkcom »

jonknee wrote: post #52
kafkaesq wrote: post #16

Facebook's Sheryl Sandberg told CNBC's Julia Boorstin that she was "disappointed in certain elements of the decision." Sandberg added she was "considering our options to appeal," and the verdict was "not material to our financials." Sure, FB has a lot of money. But still -- $500M is "not material" to their finances?

It's not material because they have the cash and it will not harm future cash flow. They also don't have to pay it all, Facebook is on the hook for $300m and the rest is from Luckey and Iribe. Facebook just announced earnings this afternoon and banked $3.568b in profit for the quarter. That's 12x they'll pay even without any insurance. They have $29.45b in the bank so this is a 1% hit at worst, so as Sandberg said: n…

Most acquisitions will set aside 10-20% or more of funds into escrow to cover litigation and tax issues that occur, this isn't released for ~4 years after close (stat of limitations on tax returns). So chances are that FB is not paying much if any of the settlement amount and they don't have a big incentive to fight other than not setting a precedent of being easy to sue and win.
Post reply on HN