OPTICS BUSINESS TO BE SNAPPED UP BY US CAMERA COMPANY FOR $500 MILLION

Wave Optics, the Oxfordshire-based augmented reality company, is being bought by its customer Snap Inc for $500 million.

WaveOptics, which launched in 2014, now has more than 100 employees. It creates waveguides and projectors to bring augmented reality to the mass market.

USA-based Snap Inc believes

Ambitious new West Midlands

firm buys Warwick accountants

A newly formed accountancy firm based in the West Midlands has made its first acquisition.

BK Plus was set up by David Baldwin and Shaun Knight following their departure from David’s family accountancy business Baldwins last year. Their new company has now bought Chapman Nash accountancy in Warwickshire.

In 2016 Baldwins was sold to Cogital which subsequently rebranded to the rather more funky name of Azets last year.

Shaun, co-founder BK Plus, said: “It is fantastic to join forces with such a well-respected firm in our first major acquisition, so soon after launching the business.”

“reinventing the camera represents our greatest opportunity to improve the way people live and communicate.”

Waveguides are a display technology that enables the overlaying of virtual objects on to the real world through a transparent surface like glass and accompanying light projectors. Snap is already using WaveOptics displays in its new spectacles.

Snap’s purchase of the Oxfordshire business means it has acquired the maker of a key component for AR glasses in a fast-growing industry.