First off, they should've expected that reaction if they sold to <i>anyone</i>, because:<p>#1 it was too early, and they still had a lot of investment money<p>#2 they've implied many times that they wouldn't sell. I don't remember if they said it directly, but they certainly made it seem that way<p>#3 they basically decided to sell the company "overnight". That took everyone by surprise, and it made the move extremely suspicious (personally, I still think Mark Andreessen forced the decision, and Oculus was more like "ok, well I guess that could work", rather than enthusiastically try to sell the company themselves, prior to that)<p>#4 Facebook seems like one of the worst companies that could've bought Oculus, and no one would've even <i>dreamed</i> that would ever happen, from the community. A lot of people were like "WTF? Is this a joke?" when they heard it. And it's one of the worst, not just because people hated it for being so privacy-intrusive, but also because there's no connection between Oculus and Facebook, and usually when the cultures and visions are very different, the acquisition fails.<p>I don't believe them when they say they really din't expect the reaction to Facebook buying them. If they didn't maybe they aren't paying much attention to what's happening in the tech community lately. I think Oculus could've only done worse than Facebook if they would've been bought by Oracle.