Leap Motion, Once a Virtual-Reality High Flier, Sells Itself to U.K. Rival
Leap Motion Inc., a virtual-reality startup that helped pioneer gesture tracking technology, has agreed to sell itself to British rival UltraHaptics Ltd. for approximately $30 million, according to people familiar with the matter—about a 10th of its valuation just a few years ago.
UltraHaptics will take on Leap Motion’s patents and staff, mostly engineers who now number close to a dozen people, including co-founder and Chief Technology Officer David Holz. Leap Motion’s chief executive and co-founder, Michael Buckwald, won’t stay at the company.
UltraHaptics, a 116-person company based in Bristol, England, has been licensing Leap Motion’s technology for the past six years for its own hardware technology: using focused sound waves to create the sensation of touch in midair.
One of the company’s recent contracts is a proof of concept project for a car maker that will allow drivers to control their entertainment system by “feeling” buttons in the air above a dashboard, said Chief Executive Steve Cliffe. “Humans generally interact by talking and gesturing,” he said. “It’s about human interfaces going forwards.”
See the full story here: https://www.wsj.com/articles/leap-motion-once-a-virtual-reality-high-flier-sells-itself-to-u-k-rival-11559210520