Magic Leap wants to avoid a takeover and go public

Magic Leap CEO Ronny Abovitz has stated his ambition to avoid an acquisition and take the company public - as long as the much hyped technology can get the support of developers.

Responding to a question from Upload VR, Abovitz said that Magic Leap "doesn't have to be acquired by anybody" if it can attract developers to its platform.

"We don't have to compromise on our mission and values and north stars," he said, addressing a question that cited Facebook's high-profile acquisition of Oculus VR. "That I think would be the best thing for the creative community."

Abovitz added that a takeover can involve the imposition of another company's philosophy, structure, and business model. "We don't have a business model that needs to take data from people," he said. "Our business model can be built in a much different way, in a much more open distributed way."

Magic Leap intends to offer independent developers incentives to create content for the platform, in the form of an Independent Creator Program due to launch later this year. This week, Insomniac Games announced Seedling, a new game designed specifically for Magic Leap.

The company also expanded the shipping range for its first device, Magic Leap One Creator's Edition, to every state in the US except for Alaska and Hawaii. As Techcrunch noted, until now you had to be based in Chicago, LA, Miami, New York City, San Francisco or Seattle to take delivery of the hardware, but that reach has now extended to 50 different cities.

Nevertheless, the Creator's Edition remains a significant investment, with a price tag of $2,295.