Magic Leap reportedly moves away from selling AR headsets
According to a report, Magic Leap is laying off dozens of employees and pivoting to technology licensing.
Bloomberg reports, citing two people familiar with the matter, that Magic Leap cut around 75 jobs on Thursday, including the entire sales and marketing departments.
According to the sources, the company is reorienting itself away from selling headsets to enterprise customers and toward licensing its optical technology. The future of the troubled company has become even more uncertain in recent months, the sources said.
Verge reporter Alex Heath independently reported that Magic Leap intends to become a component vendor for other companies looking to build their own headsets.
In May, Magic Leap and Google entered into a strategic partnership, without disclosing details of the collaboration. Google is also an investor in Magic Leap, which is now owned by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund. Bloomberg's sources say the negotiations with Google were a last-ditch effort to salvage the company's remaining value.
After the flop of its first AR headset, Magic Leap halved its workforce to 1,000 employees in 2020 and later narrowed its business to enterprise customers with the Magic Leap 2. If the company does indeed pull the plug on sales, it would be another failure for the company and its products.
The Magic Leap 2 is considered the most advanced AR headset on the market. The company's lack of success with the device raises more questions about the future of this device category.
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