bullet Action Jack buys Keenan Feldspar’s Retinabyte for $2 Billion

By: C.J. Cantwell

In a true Valley twist, Hooli disrupted the VR market this week when they made the surprise purchase of Keenan Feldspar’s VR startup, Retinabyte, for a cool $2 billion. The deal consists of $1.3 billion in cash, and the remainder in Hooli stock. Rumor has it there are additional millions in potential earn-out in cash and stock if the tech meets certain benchmarks.

It’s quite a deal, but it had to be for Feldspar to leave the world of venture capital, where he’s been courted for weeks by VIPs and VCs hoping to get a peek at his elusive demo. Anyone lucky enough to see it was immediately wowed, so it’s no surprise that firm after firm made bold moves to sweep the tech genius up. Recently formed Bream-Hall made waves when they scored Feldspar’s Series A, but this tech Wunderkind couldn’t be held down: after rumors swirled of a move to Raviga, Feldspar surprised the Valley with a flash sale to Hooli, brokered by “Action” Jack Barker himself.

Between Feldspar’s tech and Hooli’s resources, the duo is set to take over the highly frothy VR space. Action Jack announced via press release today that “Hooli couldn’t be more poised to become the leader of all things VR,” and the sale “illustrates Hooli’s continued commitment to innovation.” This is an exciting move for Barker, whose tenure at Hooli has remained quiet since he took the reins from founder Gavin Belson two months ago. Prior to this purchase, Barker’s biggest move has been to promote the sale of the Hooli Box, a data storage device. In regards to landing Feldspar’s tech, Barker stated, “I’m thrilled to bring my legendary deal-making to the Hooli table. Hold on, Hooli Table, is there something there?”

Whether Barker uses the tech for a new Hooli Table, or integrates it into Hooli’s current products, the Valley is ready to see what Barker and Feldspar have in store for us – perhaps via some sort of VR goggle situation? Whatever innovations they come up with, tech insiders have suggested we’ll get a taste of what’s to come at Hooli-Con this Saturday. With the conference less than a week a way, the future has never seemed closer.