Magic Leap has been going through some distress over the past several months with their sales and COVID-19 lockdown. The company was supposed to lay off a large portion of their employees but was able to secure an additional $350 million in funding to prevent that.
Now it seems that Magic Leap has additional news with Rony Abovitz, CEO and Founder of the company, announcing that he will be stepping down from his position.
Abovitz stated the following:
“As we’ve shared over the last several weeks, in order to set Magic Leap on a course for success, we have pivoted to focus on delivering a spatial computing platform for enterprise.
We have closed significant new funding and have very positive momentum towards closing key strategic enterprise partnerships.
As the board and I planned the changes we made and what Magic Leap needs for this next focused phase, it became clear to us that a change in my role was a natural next step. I discussed this with the board and we have agreed that now is the time to bring in a new CEO who can help us to commercialize our focused plan for spatial computing in enterprise. We have been actively recruiting candidates for this role and I look forward to sharing more soon.
I have been leading Magic Leap since 2011 (starting in my garage). We have created a new field. A new medium. And together we have defined the future of computing. I am amazed at everything we have built and look forward to everything Magic Leap will create in the decades to come.
I will remain our CEO through the transition and am in discussions with the board with regards to how I will continue to provide strategy and vision from a board level. I remain super excited about Magic Leap’s future and believe deeply in our team and all of their incredible talent and capabilities.”
The board members of the company seeks to place a veteran CEO that can possibly change the direction of the company and improve sales in the enterprise sector with their pricey ($2300) headsets that have yet to provide much meaningful results within the XR community.