Rumors have been circulating for weeks, and now it's official: Meta, Facebook's parent company, wants to acquire up to 5% of EssilorLuxottica, the French-Italian eyewear giant and parent company of Ray-Ban.
Francesco Milleri, the head of EssilorLuxottica, confirmed the interest as reported by Kurier.
Meta has been collaborating with Ray-Ban on smart glasses since 2021.
These innovative glasses feature cameras, speakers, and artificial intelligence (AI) that can recognize objects and buildings and respond to wearer queries.
The latest version, released last September, has already surpassed the sales of its predecessor within a few months.
EssilorLuxottica shares surged by as much as 15% following the news.
The company, valued at approximately 87 billion euros, suggests that Meta's potential stake could be worth over 4.5 billion euros.
Milleri emphasized that Meta would need to purchase the shares on the open market.
A third version of the smart glasses is slated for 2025 and is rumored to include a small screen. However, recent reports indicate that EssilorLuxottica has distanced itself from the project due to the clunky design.
Despite this, the partnership between Meta and EssilorLuxottica continues to show promise.
Competition from Google
Google has also shown interest in acquiring a stake in EssilorLuxottica, aiming to integrate its AI technology, Gemini, into smart glasses.
This competitive interest from Google likely pressured Meta to expedite its involvement with the eyewear manufacturer.
Meta's interest in eyewear is not new.
In 2014, when it was still known as Facebook, the company acquired virtual reality glasses developer Oculus. Following Facebook's rebranding to Meta, Oculus was discontinued in 2022, and the VR glasses are now marketed as Meta Quest.
The third version of these headsets, introduced last September, will soon feature AI capabilities.
