StarVR, the virtual reality (VR) head-mounted display being created by Starbreeze AB, is now getting further support from technology company Acer Inc. The two companies announced back in May that they would be cooperating in the design, manufacturing, promotion, marketing and sales of StarVR HMD. Over the weekend their respective Board of Directors revealed the approval of the joint venture and that Acer will contribute financing to Starbreeze through a two-year bond convertible into B-shares, corresponding to 9 million USD.
The deal will mean the new company is provisionally named Acer Starbreeze Corporation, and is expected to be incorporated in Taiwan in Q3 2016. The bond will have a coupon not exceeding an interest cost of 2% per year. Acer may convert the bond into B-shares at a conversion price at 60-day average share price, prior to June 24.
“Acer’s investment directly into Starbreeze will greatly benefit our long term VR-strategy and further solidify the collaboration between our companies and additionally enrich our eco-system,” said Bo Andersson Klint, Starbreeze CEO. “Our strategic alignment with Acer is going to exponentially improve the StarVR HMD in terms of quality, execution and market reach. Together, we will keep pushing the frontier of VR technology. With the Acer production partnership for the StarVR headset, our joint venture with IMAX for location-based entertainment, and the content platform collaboration with Smilegate, we now have a perfect ecosystem for our VR centers.”
“The joint venture with Starbreeze highlights Acer’s commitment of bringing premium user experiences in time to the market,” added Jason Chen, Corporate President and CEO, Acer Inc. “Combining Starbreeze’s industry-leading VR technology, and Acer’s established experience in hardware and computing, we will bring VR experiences to new heights with StarVR.”
The StarVR HMD features an ultra-wide 210-degree horizontal field of view; dual Quad HD display architecture, one per eye, with a total panoramic definition of 5120×1440 pixels. As VRFocus learns more about Acer and Starbreeze AB’s plans for StarVR, we’ll bring you the latest details.
