The lawsuit stems from a two-year-old dispute between ZeniMax and Oculus, with ZeniMax alleging that Oculus CTO John Carmack and Oculus founder Palmer Luckey stole intellectual property to start the work on the Oculus Rift VR headset. The company also claimed that Facebook rushed through its acquisition process, not properly vetting Oculus and its executives for possible conflicts and other warning signs.
ZeniMax was seeking as much as $4 billion in the case. However, the jury threw out some claims, and primarily focused on the fact that Luckey and Carmack violated their non-disclosure agreements. The judgement requires Oculus to pay $300 million directly, with Carmack having to pay another $150 million and Luckey having to pay $150 million.
