Formation 8, the U.S. venture capital firm known for backing virtual-reality company Oculus VR, said on Wednesday it has raised $500 million for its second fund, less than two years after raising $448 million for its first one. The fund, created by startup whiz kid Joe Lonsdale and colleagues Brian Koo and Jim Kim, specializes in technology companies with aspirations of doing business in Asia."We like to place contrarian bets," Koo said in an interview on Tuesday, citing hardware, agriculture technology, and energy as areas from which many other venture firms shy away. In recent year, software companies have attracted the most dollars, according to the National Venture Capital Association, as well as the most buzz in venture capital.Oculus, which relies on hardware in the form of a 3D headset for video games, is a case in point. Facebook Inc bought the company earlier this year for $2 billion.Formation 8 uses connections in Asia to help companies in their portfolio, as it did with Oculus. Koo, whose cousin is chairman of Korean conglomerate LG Electronics Inc helped connect Oculus with another Korean company, electronics giant Samsung Co Ltd. Samsung now helps Oculus develop its video screens.
Facebook, Inc. (Facebook) is engaged in building products to create utility for users, developers, and advertisers. Shares of FB fell by 0.64% or $-0.4798/share to $74.98. In the past year, the shares have traded as low as $46.26 and as high as $81.16. On average, 36034600 shares of FB exchange hands on a given day and today's volume is recorded at 11765043.
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