OCULUS CO-FOUNDER UNFRIENDS FACEBOOK

The virtual reality headset maker of Oculus, co-founder Brendan Trexler Iribe, has decided to leave Facebook, according to his post on social media earlier this week, writing that "after six incredible years, I am moving on".

Oculus, which makes Oculus Rift and Gear VR headsets, was acquired by Facebook in 2014 for $3 billion. In 2016, Facebook reassigned Iribe, who had been Oculus's chief executive, to head development of virtual reality tools for PCs.

Iribe's departure follows the exits of Instagram co-founders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger last month. They resigned from the photo-sharing app also owned by Facebook, and long-term Facebook insider, Adam Mosseri, was appointed as Instagram's new head.

The departures at Facebook's fastest-growing revenue generator came just months after the exit of Jan Koum and Brian Acton, co-founders of Facebook-owned messaging app WhatsApp, leaving the social network without the developers behind two of its biggest services.

Facebook doesn’t financially depend on Oculus the way it does Instagram; as Iribe pointed out in his departure post, VR is still an experimental field. There's no clear reason for his departure – except the obvious fact that Oculus has evolved a lot under Facebook, and it's not too surprising to see some of its original members move on.