Since late last year we’ve been trying to get an update from Meta, the AR company, and its founder Meron Gribetz. A letter filed in a patent infringement lawsuit against Meta seems to say more than Gribetz can right now about the status of the business he started.
As first reported by Next Reality and confirmed with our own court records search, Genedics, LLC, submitted a letter in the case allegedly written by Meta Chief Financial Officer John Sines, which states “Meta Company is insolvent.”
Both Meta and ODG, founded respectively by Meron Gribetz and Ralph Osterhout, pursued varying AR headset designs but struggled through 2018, with ODG pursuing a sale focused around its patents this month. Next steps for Meta are still unclear. Its website appears stripped down with no purchase button for its Meta 2 headset and a copyright date of 2017 listed on the page. A statement issued today by PR representative Stuart McFaul suggested “the company remains in full operation” and “will be issuing a statement later next week which will address details of the company’s furlough, recent restructuring and subsequent progress.”
In December, I emailed Meta’s main PR address seeking to get the status of the company and received responses from McFaul’s Spiralgroup.com address in reply. He said that Gribetz was “traveling internationally.” With Next Reality’s report, McFaul followed up yesterday writing that Gribetz “returned from Singapore yesterday.” Bloomberg reported in September that Gribetz said he couldn’t get investment in China and furloughed employees as a result.
An order issued by the judge on Jan. 10 in the patent infringement suit says Meta has until Jan. 24 to respond or its answer in the case would be stricken and “default” would be entered against the company.
