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Facebook (FB) Looking for a Retail Head to Sell Hardware

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Facebook Inc is looking for a GTM Retail Program Manager “who will have the responsibility of creating disruptive ground up shopping experiences of Facebook consumer hardware”. 

Per media reports, Facebook is trying to build a strong presence in the hardware products arena which boasts names like Apple Inc (AAPL - Free Report) , Microsoft (MSFT - Free Report) and Alphabet (GOOGL - Free Report) . However, media reports add that Facebook may not be setting up stores but might just be looking to enhance experiences of its retail associates.

Facebook is working to boost its hardware efforts. Last year, at its F8 Developer Conference, the company announced Building 8—a DARPA style research facility, spearheaded by Regina Dugan, a former Alphabet executive. Notably, Dugan served as DARPA’s director prior to her Alphabet appointment. It had also unveiled Area 404, a 22,000 sq feet sprawling hardware research lab at it Menlo Park headquarters to boost “modeling, prototyping, and failure analysis in-house.” Last year, it also snapped up startup—Nascent Objects—for an undisclosed amount to step up its hardware efforts.

Moreover, media reports add that Facebook at this year’s F8 is likely to unveil four consumer hardware products. These include drones, brain scanning technology, augmented reality and next gen cameras. At present, Facebook sells one consumer hardware product, namely, Oculus Rift, a VR headset. The company had acquired the product for $2 billion in 2014. With Oculus, the company is trying to fuel the company’s ambitious AR/VR efforts.

In 2016, Facebook spent a whopping $6 billion on R&D alone and it is expected that it will be spending more in the future. Facebook was never intended to be just a social media service. However, of late, the company has highlighted its ambitions of becoming a tech powerhouse more than ever. We continue to be impressed with Facebook’s efforts to develop cutting edge AI & AR/VR technology.

There are just too many things going on in Facebook’s favor right now like Instagram, Oculus, Messenger and WhatsApp, and the company’s strength in mobile and live video efforts. In the past one year, Facebook shares have gone up 25.02% compared with the Zacks Internet Services industry’s gain of 11.46%.

At present, Facebook has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

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