The Entire VR Industry in One Little Email
The Daily Roundup is our comprehensive coverage of the VR industry wrapped up into one daily email, delivered directly to your inbox.
NextVR, the live event broadcasting platform for VR headsets, may soon find itself acquired by Apple, a report by 9to5Mac maintains, which is expected to be valued around $100 million.
At the time of this writing, neither Apple nor NextVR have commented on the alleged acquisition. 9to5Mac posits that the acquisition may center on NextVR’s patented video streaming technology.
Founded in 2009, the Orange County-based startup broadcasts stereoscopic video of live sports and music to a wide swath of VR headsets, including Oculus Go, Oculus Quest, PSVR, and PC VR headsets such as HTC Vive and Oculus Rift S. It’s unique selling proposition has always been its ability to let fan get close to the action in a way traditional monoscopic livestreams simply can’t, i.e. by letting VR users watch live events from the best seat in the house.
The company has come a long ways since it initially launched the platform on Samsung Gear VR in 2015, amassing over 40 patents and strategic broadcasting partnerships with the likes of the NBA, NHL, WWE, FOX Sports, Live Nation, and the International Champions Cup, and significantly upping its video quality in the process. The company has also previously sets its sights on six degrees of freedom-enabled volumetric video, higher resolution output, and augmented reality support.
According to CrunchBase, the company’s total funding comes to $115.5 million, with its latest investment, a Series B round amounting to $80 million, arriving in August 2016.
The acquisition is said to follow the company’s failure to secure a Series C round in early 2019, which coincided with a layoff of 40% of its staff.
Source: Read Full Article