Meta, which launched its Ray Ban-Meta smart glasses last year,✴ Platforms and EssilorLuxxottica, according to Financial Timesare considering deepening their cooperation through a deal to sell a small stake in the second of their companies to Mark Zuckerberg for several billion euros.
Image source: Glassdoor
Founder of Meta✴as is known, dreams of creating more advanced smart glasses, and the European manufacturer, which has extensive experience in creating stylish accessories of this type, can provide all possible assistance in this area. The capitalization of the Franco-Italian group is estimated at 87 billion euros, Meta✴ is only seeking a small stake, which would nonetheless require an investment of several billion euros. For the fashion accessories manufacturer, the collaboration with Meta✴ will be a chance to attract new customers to its products. There are no guarantees yet that the deal between the companies will take place. Meta consultant✴ Morgan Stanley is handling the deal, sources say. Sources for The Wall Street Journal they are clarifyingthat the talk is about the possibility of a purchase by Meta✴ about 5% of the shares of EssilorLuxxottica for approximately 4.33 billion euros.
EssilorLuxxottica representatives recently admitted that the smart glasses presented in October last year have now sold more units than the first generation of this device, presented in 2021, during its two years on the market. In its current version, the glasses allow the user to live stream the scenes they are watching on Facebook✴ or Instagram✴. In the US, glasses are supported by the virtual AI assistant Meta✴which allows you to ask questions about what the user sees in front of them.
This week, EssilorLuxxottica itself acquired the American fashion accessories and clothing manufacturer Supreme for $1.5 billion. The brand had planned to introduce its smart glasses, developed in collaboration with Meta✴. In April, Mark Zuckerberg confirmed that for the latter company, the smart glasses segment continues to be one of the main ones in terms of investment in development, and he considers the prospects for growth in demand for such devices to be quite good. Previously, he believed that smart glasses should be able to produce a full-size holographic image in order to cover the entire market, but the success of the Ray Ban model proved otherwise. According to him, users of smart glasses will be guided by the most diverse design of such devices, so Meta✴ should cooperate with manufacturers of similar accessories to increase market coverage.
Since the merger of Essilor and Luxxottica seven years ago, the combined company has become the world’s largest eyewear maker. In 2022, it acquired Israeli hearing aid maker Nuance Hearing, in an apparent bid to expand its offerings into the wearables market. EssilorLuxxottica is also expanding its presence in the medical technology space, as this week it bought an 80% stake in German eye microsurgery specialist Heidelberg Engineering.
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