Facebook Partners With Eyewear Giant To Make 'Smart Glasses'

Facebook Inc FB has entered into a multiyear collaboration with EssilorLuxottica to develop smart glasses.

What Happened: The partnership between the two companies was announced by the social media company's CEO Mark Zuckerberg at its virtually held Facebook Connect annual conference in California, EssilorLuxottica said in a statement.

“With EssilorLuxottica we have an equally ambitious partner who’ll lend their expertise and world-class brand catalogue to the first truly fashionable smart glasses,” Facebook Reality Labs Vice President Andrew Bosworth said.

Why It Matters: The Franco-Italian the eyewear giant EssilorLuxottica said the first product will carry the Ray-Ban brand and is set to launch in 2021.

Facebook-owned Oculus also introduced its Quest 2 virtual reality headset on Wednesday, which will retail for $299 and will begin shipping Oct. 13.

Virtual reality and augmented space have been gathering steam with Apple Inc AAPL said to be working on a headset and Apple Glasses. 

The Cupertino-based tech giant acquired Spaces last month, a company that has created VR extensions for video chat services of Zoom Video Communications ZM and Microsoft Corporation MSFT.

Price Action: Facebook shares closed nearly 3.3% lower at $263.52 on Wednesday and gained almost 0.3% in the after-hours session.