With a lawsuit in which the Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB)-owned Oculus has been accused by a games publisher of stealing technology to make a VR headset requiring Mark Zuckerberg to attend a court session in Texas, the Facebook CEO has used his time there to visit new places and meet new people. In doing so, the self-made billionaire seemed to be fulfilling his personal challenge for 2017.
“My personal challenge for 2017 is to have visited and met people in every state in the US by the end of the year…,” Zuckerberg wrote in early January.
Getting to know Middle America
Among the things that Zuckerberg did while in Texas was spend time with professional cowboys. From them, the CEO learned of the intense life that they lead and the challenges they have to go through every day. He also visited a cattle ranch and attended a rodeo with Betsy Price, mayor of Fort Worth.
On Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Zuckerberg was in the Oak Cliff neighborhood in Dallas where he participated in the planting of vegetables and fruits in a community garden. Computer science students from a local high school also had an opportunity to meet him.
Oculus versus Zenimax Media
In the trial in which the Facebook CEO is testifying in, the technology that is alleged to have been stolen belongs to id Software which is owned by Zenimax Media. The games publishing company wants to be paid $2 billion in damages as it claims that a co-founder of id Software, John Carmack, stole id’s technology when he moved to Oculus to become its chief technology officer. One of the more well-known firms that Zenimax Media owns is Bethseda Softworks, a video game developer.
Besides Zuckerberg, other executives of the Facebook-owned Oculus will testify. This includes Palmer Luckey, who founded Oculus. Facebook acquired Oculus for $3 billion in 2014 though the figure had initially been thought to be $2.3 billion. The social media giant has invested even more in trying to bring the virtual reality headsets to market.
In Wednesday’s trading, shares of Facebook Inc edged up slightly by 0.04% to close the day at $127.92 a piece.