Acer Inc (宏碁) yesterday said it is to inject US$5 million into its virtual reality (VR) joint venture with Starbreeze AB, StarVR Corp (宏星技術), increasing its stake from 50 percent to 66.7 percent as part of efforts to grow its presence in the VR industry.
“VR is one of Acer’s key focus areas... The increase of Acer’s stake in StarVR underlines our commitment to the industry and we look forward to continuing to deliver best-in-class VR experiences through our partnership with Starbreeze,” Acer chairman and chief executive officer Jason Chen (陳俊聖) said in a statement.
According to information given to the Department of Commerce by StarVR, the number of board seats is to increase from four to five, of which Acer is to control three.
Starbreeze chief executive officer Bo Andersson Klint is to continue to serve as chairman of StarVR, while Acer information technology president Jerry Kao (高樹國) will remain president, an Acer official said by telephone.
Under the terms of the joint venture, Starbreeze owns and controls the intellectual property rights, while Acer manufactures the products, Acer said, adding that research and development and reference design work for the StarVR headset is carried out by both firms.
Acer and Sweden-based Starbreeze in June last year formed StarVR with a capitalization plan of up to US$25 million.
Under the original arrangement, both firms were to share the project equally through predetermined capital injections at set dates, Acer said.
As of yesterday, US$10 million has been invested in equal amounts from Acer and Starbreeze, Acer said, adding that its upcoming US$5 million injection will bring the paid-in capital of StarVR to US$15 million.
Under the new arrangement, Starbreeze is relieved from its remaining capital commitment of US$7.5 million and its stake in StarVR will be reduced to 33.3 percent, Acer said.
The two parties have not yet agreed on further capital injections, Acer said.
Compared with other VR solutions providers that focus on consumers markets — such as HTC Corp (宏達電) and Facebook Inc’s Oculus VR Inc — StarVR has chosen to target commercial clients, such as movie theaters and amusement parks.
The companies believe that commercial partners can more efficiently build a strong and large ecosystem for VR content, Chen told reporters.
StarVR’s headset is available at IMAX Corp’s IMAX VR centers in Los Angeles and New York, and will soon be available at Starbreeze’s VR centers in Stockholm and Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Acer said.
StarVR in June entered the auto industry by forming an alliance with automotive visualization solutions provider ZeroLight to deliver a ultra-high definition automotive VR experience, Acer said.
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