Oculus co-founder Brendan Iribe leaves Facebook

SAN FRANCISCO – A co-founder of Facebook's virtual reality division joins the leadership exodus to leave the company after gaining lucrative sales from their startups.

Oculus co-founder, Brendan Iribe, unveiled his decision to leave Facebook on Monday, in a tweet, as well as a message on his Facebook page. His departure comes two and a half years after Facebook 's separation with the other co – founder of Oculus, Palmer Luckey.

Iribe and Luckey both joined Facebook in 2014 after selling Oculus to the company for $ 2 billion. Iribe was the CEO of Oculus until 2016, when he held a junior position in the virtual reality division.

On Monday, Facebook issued a statement praising Iribe for pushing virtual reality "beyond the limits of what people thought was possible, and that's thanks to his vision that we are all working on virtual reality today. We are grateful for his leadership, his dedication to building the impossible, and we will miss him. "

Oculus is considered a pioneer in creating virtual reality headsets immersing users in three-dimensional artificial worlds. Despite Facebook's support, virtual reality remains a niche technology area appreciated primarily by video game fans looking for even more attractive entertainment.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg hopes to expand the appeal of virtual reality with the release of the Oculus Quest headset next year.

It is not uncommon for founders of startups such as Iribe to leave much larger companies several years after selling them.

But Facebook has been hit by a wave of departures over the last six months, raising the question of whether Zuckerberg's push for new areas of revenue growth beyond the company's social network service is raising issues. leadership tensions.

In April, WhatsApp's CEO, Jan Koum, left Facebook four years after selling the messaging application. Last month, Instagram president Kevin Systrom and co-founder Mike Krieger proved themselves. Facebook bought Instagram for $ 1 billion in 2012.

Iribe thanked Zuckerberg for his support for Oculus in his farewell note on Facebook. "We have launched a revolution that will change the world in ways that we can not even imagine," Iribe wrote.

But Systrom hinted that there could be a discord in Facebook during an appearance last week.