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Well, another online media company snapping up smaller fish to expand its empire, Facebook,

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but its latest big acquisition of a virtual reality company came as a bit of a surprise for some

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as it represented the social media giant's move into hardware.

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Laurie Segall asked Oculus founder Brendan Iribe how the deal went down.

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Facebook has been on a multibillion-dollar buying spree over the last couple of years --

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first, photo-sharing app Instagram for a billion dollars,

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then messaging app WhatsApp for $19 billion,

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and the latest, $2 billion for the virtual reality developer called Oculus.

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Its main product -- the Oculus Rift headset,

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a mask that video game players would wear to see an interactive high-definition 3-D video environment.

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Think Google Glass on steroids.

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The CEO Brendan Iribe sat down with me to dish exclusive details behind the deal

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on how Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg geeked out when he saw what Oculus could do.

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So he tries it on and he takes it off and his first thing is,

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"So that was probably one of the coolest things I've ever seen in my life and maybe ever will see.

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How can I help? I'd really like to just help you guys."

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At that point, did you say $2 billion?

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Iribe would quickly find that Zuckerberg doesn't dwell on formalities.

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We shook hands and we were like, "Yeah, let's, you know, let's get this done." And he said, "Well, I think we can just get this done right now,

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and we should be able to get it done by Sunday."

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I would've never thought you could get this size of a deal done that fast.

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When you hear Facebook likes to move fast that's their motto -- they move fast.

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Three and a half days later, the $2 billion deal was done.

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Facebook partnered with Oculus taking on people like Iribe and Palmer Lucky,

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the 21-year-old whiz kid who built out the tech behind the gaming device.

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The deal is a bet that virtual reality headsets could be used for more immersive experiences.

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You can actually just look around and you can have objects in front of you.

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You can experience different gaming things. You could have an IMAX theater...

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and then to actually experience a shared sense of presence,

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this, where you truly believe you're somewhere and now you actually believe other people are there with you.

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And you look at them and, you know, if they look at something you can both look at the same thing together.

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There's no more window. That's, I think, going to be the magic of virtual reality.

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For Facebook, it's the first venture into hardware. Zuckerberg says this is just the start.

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He thinks virtual reality can enable people to enjoy a courtside seat,

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or study in a classroom with teachers all over the world.

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We left at around 5:30 a.m. Facebook office to go straight to the airplane, went home and went to sleep,

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and then woke up and tried to think if what we did was really... really just happened or not.

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A reality that's anything but virtual.