Magic Leap

Magic Leap keeps any details about its development secret - so far it is only known that the future product will combine virtual and augmented reality technologies. In January 2015, the developers filed a patent application for their invention - "Planar gesture-controlled apparatus with diffraction elements."^[1]

Illustration of the Magic Leap patent application

Demonstration of the capabilities of Magic Leap technology, April 2016

History

2024: Mass layoffs

At the end of July 2024, Magic Leap Inc. cut about 75 jobs after failing sales, including completely overclocking its sales and marketing departments. The company was one of the most promising start-ups in technology and at one time raised $3.5 billion, but failed to meet expectations. A Magic Leap spokesman confirmed the massive cuts, saying the company adjusted its strategy "to better match market dynamics and emerging opportunities."

Initially, Magic Leap planned to create an augmented reality headset for any users, but the first release of the new product in 2018 failed. After that, the company decided to focus primarily on the business field of using headsets, but the change in course did not benefit it. In the spring of 2024, the company's management informed employees that it was reorganizing to license new optical technology - lenses that allow AR headsets to display digital objects in the real world, but it is not yet known whether the company has entered into relevant transactions.

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Bloomberg

Nevertheless, at the end of May 2024, Magic Leap announced a partnership with Google, but the details of the agreement were not disclosed. Google has already invested in the development of Magic Leap, and in the past tried to establish itself as a leader in augmented reality technologies, but later began to yield to competitors such as Apple. Persons familiar with the situation say that the negotiations with Google were the latest attempt by Magic Leap management to save the company.

The company is expected to pay the laid-off employees two months' severance pay and require them to sign nondisclosure agreements. Persons familiar with the situation reported that the layoffs occurred "unexpectedly," but added that problems had been brewing for many months.^[2]

2020

Peggy Johnson is CEO of Magic Leap

In early July 2020, it became known Peggy Johnson about the appointment of Magic Leap as CEO. The former top manager Microsoft Qualcomm and will officially lead the developer-garnitur AR in August. More. here

Sacking half the staff and ending retail sales

On April 22, 2020, it became known about a large-scale reorganization into Magic Leap. The company laid off 1,000 employees, that is, one in two, and also decided to stop retail sales of its products.

The mass layoffs at Magic Leap were first reported by Bloomberg news agency, citing its own sources. Later, CEO Roni Abowitz confirmed the elimination of working positions, but did not give any figures.

AR headset developer Magic Leap laid off half of its employees and stops retail sales

To better prepare Magic Leap for the future, we scrutinized our business and decided to make targeted changes to how we operate and manage costs. It made us make the incredibly difficult decision to lay off a number of employees at Magic Leap, "Abowitz wrote on the company's blog.

From 2010 to April 2020, Magic Leap attracted a total of more than $2.6 billion in investments. After the outbreak of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, the company promoted its $2,300 points as the perfect tool for remote work.

According to Bloomberg, the Magic Leap board of directors is also considering attracting new external investments, and options for partnering with a large medical company, sources said. Abowitz said the company is "in the process of negotiating potentially profitable strategic partnerships that see the value of Magic Leap's technology platform in the corporate market."

The startup also decided to abandon retail sales and concentrate on the corporate segment, where the company will have to compete with Microsoft and its HoloLens product.

Magic Leap has contracted Chinese telecoms operator NTT Docomo for augmented reality headsets. NTT is expected to promote partner devices to local companies.^[3]

Magic Leap, an AR startup that cheated expectations, wants to sell the business for $10 billion

Augmented reality startup Magic Leap is looking for buyers, according to Business Insider^[4]. Several sale options are being considered, including partnerships and a public listing, according to the company's report. Magic Leap expects to receive $10 billion. However, negotiations with Facebook and Johnson & Johnson did not lead to anything, notes Bloomberg^[5][6]

According to Techcrunch, the coronavirus pandemic does not contribute to the sale of Magic Leap: "Augmented reality seems less interesting than virtual reality, when people avoid public places. Getting people to tie used AR equipment to their face seems like a difficult task in the foreseeable future."

2019: Buying video conferencing service developer Mimesys

In mid-May 2019, Magic Leap announced the acquisition of augmented reality video conferencing service Mimesys. Read more here.

2018

Opening the Developer Platform

In March 2018, Magic Leap released its first set of tools with which third-party developers can create software for the company's equipment. True, by the time of this SDK release, not a single Magic Leap product had reached the commercial market.

Magic Leap has launched a special portal (Creator Portal), on which everyone can download the Lumin SDK software development toolkit, as well as access detailed instructions for developers and technical support services of the company.

Magic Leap opens developer portal and makes SDK available

Magic Leap named the operating system that will be used in augmented reality glasses - Lumin OS. It is built on the Linux kernel and was created according to the principles of Open Source.

The Magic Leap device app store is called Magic Leap World. With it, you can "create and manage your development team, and then provide it with access to all the tools necessary to successfully exchange creations with the world," the company's website says.

To see what the Magic Leap headset users will see, the Magic Leap Simulator has been provided for developers.

Magic Leap talked about plans to create a portal for developers back in 2015: then the company only announced that those wishing to participate in the development (they were asked to leave their contact details) would be able to work with the Unity and Unreal game engines. In 2016, the startup allowed only a limited number of users to participate in the development, and only in March 2018 the platform was opened to everyone.^[7]

As a result, the developers were able to download preliminary builds of Unreal Engine 4 or Unity to study computing in three-dimensional space, which is provided by the Magic Leap platform.

Business valuation of $6 billion

In March 2018, Magic Leap attracted another portion of large investments, despite the fact that the company had not released a single product to the market by this point.

According to the Reuters news agency, citing a statement by Magic Leap, the company held a second investment round, following which it managed to raise $461 million. The first round took place in October 2017, then $502 million was invested in Magic Leap, and most of the funds were provided by the Singapore state investment fund Temasek Holdings. Thus, the total amount of money received by the startup for two rounds reached $963 million, and for the entire time the amount exceeded $2.3 billion.

AR startup Magic Leap raised $2.3 billion in investments without a single product and valued at $6 billion

The March funding deal for Magic Leap involved the Saudi Sovereign Wealth Fund (PIF  ). He joined Magic Leap investors like Google, Alibaba Group, Qualcomm, Warner Bros and JP Morgan. The market value of Magic Leap by March 2018 is estimated at more than $6 billion.

Magic Leap is considered an AR startup with the best financial support. Niantic, the closest investment competitor, received $233 million from investors, which is significantly less than Magic Leap.

Magic Leap has not revealed where it spends investor money. It is only known that the company is developing an entire AR ecosystem, which includes not only devices, but also software and content for this equipment. According to Business Insider, Magic Leap's monthly spending exceeds $50 million.

Surprisingly, Magic Leap raises hundreds of millions of dollars in investments without selling at least one product. The first of these, the Magic Leap One Creator Edition augmented reality glasses, is set to hit the market in 2018. According to unofficial data, the cost of this headset will reach $1,500.

According to Bloomberg, the high interest of investors in Magic Leap is due to the ambitious concept and secrecy of the project, but the company is increasingly having to respond to skeptical opinions about the ability to complete the development. In addition, there are many internal problems.

In February 2018, Magic Leap sued its former employee Todd Keil, who, under threat of lawsuits, tried to extort money. Later, Business Insider wrote that Magic Leap contacted the police because of the theft of $1 million by an employee from the company.^[8]

2017: Raising $2 billion in investments

On October 18, 2017, it became known that Magic Leap, one of the most promoted but still rather mysterious players in the emerging augmented reality (AR) market, raised more than half a billion dollars during an investment round. As a result of this transaction, the startup gained a total of almost $2 billion in investments.^[9]

AR startup without a single product attracted $2 billion in investments

Investors such as Google, Alibaba, J.P. Morgan, Fidelity Management and Research, and T. Rowe Price have re-invested in Magic Leap. For the first time, Grupo Globo, Temasek, EDBI and Janus Henderson Investors took part in the financing of Magic Leap.

We are pleased to welcome Temasek and other new investors to participate in this Magic Leap investment round. We are also very grateful to our shareholders for the strong support and partnership that comes from them, "said Magic Leap CEO Rony Abovitz.

Augmented reality is the overlay of virtual images on the real world environment. Unlike fully created artificially virtual reality, this technology has not yet been widely used among ordinary users, although Microsoft has had quite a success with its Hololens glasses (the company calls this technology "mixed reality").

By October 2017, the total amount of investments attracted by Magic Leap amounted to $1.9 billion, and investors value the company at about $6 billion. Despite the large funding, the company did not disclose detailed information about its products. It is only known that the startup creates headsets for augmented reality slightly larger than ordinary glasses, but fewer headsets for virtual reality. Magic Leap said that its devices would not cause eye strain, which is often associated with the use of headsets with displays.

Notes