Facebook’s Meta explored the possibility of investing multi-billions in EssilorLuxottica as it intensifies its efforts to develop smart eyewear.
Multiple people familiar with the company’s thinking have confirmed that it has considered a small stake of €87bn in the Franco-Italian Group.
Some people have said that the move is a result of Meta holding discussions with EssilorLuxottica in order to deepen the existing collaboration after the successful launch last year of a revamped “Ray-Ban Meta”, smart glasses.
Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Meta, has invested billions in recent years into entering the wearable tech market. This includes creating virtual reality headsets. EssilorLuxottica, a Paris-listed company, has also been pushing for offers that will attract a younger generation of consumers.
The people involved in the discussions said that there is no guarantee of any investment. According to one person, Meta has worked with Morgan Stanley in this matter.
EssilorLuxottica shares rose by nearly 5 percent on Thursday after the report.
Meta, EssilorLuxottica, and Morgan Stanley declined comment.
Francesco Milleri, EssilorLuxottica chief executive, said that the first Ray-Ban Meta sunglasses were introduced in 2021. However, the newest version launched in October of last year has sold more than its predecessors in just a few short months, he added.
The glasses’ latest version allows users to stream live what they see to Facebook and Instagram. The glasses in the US are integrated with Meta, an artificial intelligence assistant. Owners can ask the glasses to provide more information on what they see.
EssilorLuxottica has agreed to purchase US streetwear brand Supreme this week for $1.5bn. According to people close to the deal, the eyewear group wanted to launch a new smart version of Supreme sunglasses in partnership Meta to better target younger consumers.
Meta and Apple are competing to create unobtrusive augmented-reality glasses that will one day replace smartphones as the next generation computing device. However, the technology is still in its infancy and consumers are reluctant to wear bulky devices on their faces.
On an earnings call in April, Zuckerberg stated that the outlook for smart glass had “improved quite significantly” and that this was one of “the bigger areas” into which the company invested within its AR and Virtual Reality department, Reality Labs.
He had previously said that glasses would require “full-holographic displays” to be a big market, but the success of Meta Ray-Bans has proven the opposite.
He added: “If we wanted everyone to have the ability to use wearable artificial intelligence, I think that eyewear would be different than phones or watches because people will want to see very different designs.” “I think that our partnership with leading eyewear companies will help us reach more people.”
EssilorLuxottica has grown steadily to become the largest eyewear company in the world. It was formed seven years ago by a complex €50bn merge of Italian billionaire Leonardo Del Vecchio’s eyewear group Luxottica with French lens manufacturer Essilor.
In the last few years, the group’s strategy has been centered around the acquisition of engineering and technology companies. The group acquired Nuance Hearing, an Israeli start-up in hearing technology. It will use this technology to create glasses with acoustic beamforming.
As part of its expansion into the medtech sector, EssilorLuxottica has also taken an 80 percent stake in Heidelberg Engineering. This German company specialises in eye surgery technology.
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