Meta intends to develop smart glasses and is preparing a multi-billion dollar investment in EssilorLuxottica

Meta✴ Platforms and EssilorLuxxottica, which jointly released Ray Ban-Meta smart glasses last year, according to the Financial Times, are considering the possibility of deepening cooperation through a deal to sell a small stake in the capital of the second of them to Mark Zuckerberg’s company for several billion euros .

Image Source: Glassdoor

The founder of Meta✴, as you know, 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✴ claims only a small stake, which, however, will require investments of several billion euros. For a manufacturer of fashion accessories, cooperation with Meta✴ will be a chance to attract new customers to its products. There are no guarantees that the deal between the companies will take place. Morgan Stanley is Meta✴’s consultant on the deal, the sources said. Sources of The Wall Street Journal clarify that we are talking about the possibility of Meta✴ purchasing about 5% of EssilorLuxxottica shares for approximately 4.33 billion euros.

Representatives from EssilorLuxxottica recently admitted that the smart glasses introduced in October last year have now sold out in larger quantities than the first generation of this device, introduced in 2021, in its two years on the market. In its current version, the glasses allow live broadcasting of scenes observed by the user on Facebook✴ or Instagram✴. In the US, glasses are supported to work with the Meta✴ virtual AI assistant, which allows you to ask questions about what the user sees in front of them.

This week, EssilorLuxxottica itself acquired the American manufacturer of fashion accessories and clothing Supreme for $1.5 billion. This brand planned to present its smart glasses, developed in collaboration with Meta✴. In April, Mark Zuckerberg confirmed that for the latter company, the direction of smart glasses 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 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 a wide variety of designs of such devices, so Meta✴ should cooperate with manufacturers of such accessories to increase market coverage.

Following the merger of Essilor and Luxxottica seven years ago, the combined company has become the largest eyewear manufacturer in the world. In 2022, it acquired Israeli hearing aid makers Nuance Hearing, clearly looking to expand its offerings into the wearables market. At the same time, EssilorLuxxottica’s presence in the field of medical technologies is expanding, as this week the company bought an 80% stake in the German company Heidelberg Engineering, which specializes in the production of equipment for eye microsurgery.