And then there were none: Oculus co-founder Nate Mitchell, the last remaining co-founder of one of Facebook’s major acquisitions, is leaving the company.
Mitchell revealed his departure in a Reddit post, writing, “I have some bittersweet news to share with this community. After seven incredible years, I’ve decided to move on from Oculus/Facebook.”
He continued, “What’s next for me: I’m taking time to travel, be with family and recharge. Of course, I’ll still be part of this community, but I’ll have a much smaller role to play. I expect the incredible team at Facebook to continue to surprise and delight us on this mission to build the next computing platform. I can’t wait to see what comes next.”
Facebook acquired virtual reality company Oculus VR for $2 billion in March 2014.
Mitchell’s co-founder, Palmer Luckey, left Facebook in March 2017.
The social network acquired photo- and video-sharing network Instagram for $1 billion in April 2012, and its co-founders, Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger, abruptly departed last September, with reports suggesting that they clashed with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
Similarly, messaging application WhatsApp became part of the Facebook empire in a whopping $19 billion deal in October 2014. Co-founder Brian Acton left the company in September 2017—going as far as to tweet, “It is time. #deletefacebook,” in March 2018—and co-founder Jan Koum followed suit in April 2018.
Annual conference Oculus Connect 6 will take place Sept. 25 and 26 at the San Jose McEnery Convention Center in San Jose, Calif.
