LINDEN RESEARCH, INC. TO BE ACQUIRED

[Cinos Field]

Of course, we could also be positive.

If issues like covid keep popping up, a platform like SL is practically a goldmine. Maybe our benevolent overlords invest enough money to totally revamp the client code for modern performance and true VR support, and then keep investing because the moment that happens SL is going to become the past app of the future... again.

[Solar Legion]

1. Hope for the best
2. Plan for the worst
3. Expect nothing

That's it. Speculation is lovely and all but being panicked will not help whatsoever.

[Pamela Galli]

As a former teacher, I have been acutely aware, as only a teacher can be, that the plans for schools opening “Safely” are not really doable. For multiple reasons, they are simply not. Teaching is the greatest job in the world but it is also gruelingLy difficult. So now they are supposed to suddenly do something that will make it exponentially harder, like for example teach half the students in the morning, half in the afternoon? On top of reminding kids all day long to keep their masks on and keep distance, to say nothing of trying to help kids when  they get stuck without being able to crouch at their side? All in the middle of a raging out of control pandemic in most states. (Unlike in most first world countries that got control of the virus first.) A lot of teachers would just quit or retire.
 

So, there is a need for out of the box thinking, in part involving creative leveraging of technology. Specifically VR, or Roblox, or SL. So with those videos it looks like someone may have some idea along those lines — yes SL had campuses before, but there never was much purpose to them. Now, maybe there is? 
 

Since SL is my job, I just hope they don’t kill it off.

[Silent Mistwalker]

14 hours ago, CoffeeDujour said:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waffle_House_Index

They used to have the best breakfast chops you could sink your teeth into. Good times.

[Livio Korobase]

 

1 hour ago, KT Kingsley said:

The change is that the previous owners of LL (which, in turn, owns Second Life and Tilia, but no longer Sansar) have sold it to new owners (who now own Linden Lab and its properties, Second Life and Tilia). What the new owners want to do with LL (and its properties, Second Life and Tilia)will become apparent over the course of time. 

sorry but i don't see this subtle differences... LL has been acquired by an investment group bla bla. This mean that the old LL is no longer the owner of Second Life and Tilia. There are new owners and the old management can be also fired. Sansar was already gone, so i repeat my question: what remain to ex LL of the old products? Nothing... or at least seem so.

Edited July 10, 2020 by Livio Korobase

[Silent Mistwalker]

12 hours ago, CollidingNeurons said:

my concern is after reading one of the investors bio and seeing how he started several companies only to move them on to some giant corporation like Pepsi etc is this is like flipping houses, buy a company invest in a new coat of paint , rugs etc, sell it to a bigger company for a profit. a fixer upper company in a good neighborhood

A "fixer upper" company that uses substandard materials and cheap labor to maximize profits applies to more than just houses.

[Solar Legion]

9 minutes ago, Livio Korobase said:

 

sorry but i don't see this subtle differences... LL has been acquired by an investment group bla bla. This mean that the old LL is no longer the owner of Second Life and Tilia. There are new owners and the old management can be also fired. Sansar was already gone, so i repeat my question: what remain to ex LL of the old products? Nothing... or at least seem so.

The difference is not subtle.

Linden Lab itself is being bought. The ownership of Second Life and Tilia has not changed - yet. Linden Lab still owns both and unless something changes will continue to own both with the only difference being that Linden Lab/Linden Research is itself now owned by a parent company.

This is not a difficult to grasp concept.

[Lux Voxel]

This is why things have been shady around here lately.
No one asks questions as to why but they defend Second Life without free thinking.
I am hoping they will not kill this off like they have been.

[Livio Korobase]

10 minutes ago, Solar Legion said:

The difference is not subtle.

Linden Lab itself is being bought. The ownership of Second Life and Tilia has not changed - yet. Linden Lab still owns both and unless something changes will continue to own both with the only difference being that Linden Lab/Linden Research is itself now owned by a parent company.

This is not a difficult to grasp concept.

Subtle was a joke, Yet they are just waiting bureaucratic approval for Tilia, but jokes are done. And no, LL is now owned by completely different people. Is not difficult grasp the concept. If tomorrow they think that SL is not a good affair, they can close without a blink because LL is not the only thing they own. You see the subtle difference?

 

Edited July 10, 2020 by Livio Korobase

[Solar Legion]

Linden Lab could - ion the past - decide to shut down Second Life and even close their own corporate doors - nothing whatsoever has changed there.

An ownership change does not alter that particular possibility - the only thing that changes is who will decide that in the end.

Done with the Chicken Little act? Yes? No?

Doesn't matter. See the numbered list I'd posted earlier - that matters.

Have a nice day - perhaps someone else will take your bait.

[Silent Mistwalker]

9 hours ago, Drayke Newall said:

Odd comparing Mark Kingdon and Ebbe as to different sides of the coin. Whilst I would agree Ebbe is far better than Mark, at least Mark saw future for Second Life and actively tried to make it and not another program more appealing. Also, the reason I said it was odd you comparing the two is, because it is Ironic in the paths that they took were in essence identical and proven to take the same unfortunate end, yet one is hated and the other is not. Let me put it this way.

Under Mark Kingdon's tenure, he wanted to look at a world in which businesses can create independently hosted grids on users/business computers (aka basically Sansar except using SL as the platform). He called it Second Life Enterprise. It failed and led to many layoffs and the final nail in the SL hype train.

Ebbe did, in essence the same except, invested millions more into a separate program to do the same. A separate hostable world except made those worlds downloadable and not streamed. It lead to many layoffs as well as now this where Linden Lab is sold 'Acquired'.

You may say coincidence, I say Ironic.

The issue now is where can SL go from here? in 2010 SL still had a place where Virtual Worlds were all the rage and new ones popping up left right and centre. Now its a different story with near none being looked at. Any company investing in this world is only going to look at dollars and things it can use to make more- especially an investment group. Given Tillia is so linked to SL and it being unlikely Linden Lab were going to sell one without the other, I worry that Tillia was the main goal and SL is just a necessity afterthought to get that.

Sansar was born under Rod Humble's tutelage. Ebbe "inherited" it and ran with it.

Now I'm wondering if Tilia was actually created with this acquisition in mind. A preparation for an expected future (now past) transaction. 

The end is nigh?

[Cinos Field]

Yeah, I mean, to be fair, the Linden leadership of the past hasn't exactly been stellar either. The whole Sansar thing, namely. And everything M did.

If we look at silver linings, there is a possibility that things will improve.

I never got the feeling that the really high-up ones cared about the SL community much, beyond the first, hallowed be his name.

Edited July 10, 2020 by Cinos Field

[CaerolleClaudel]

1 hour ago, Pamela Galli said:

As a former teacher, I have been acutely aware, as only a teacher can be, that the plans for schools opening “Safely” are not really doable. For multiple reasons, they are simply not. Teaching is the greatest job in the world but it is also gruelingLy difficult. So now they are supposed to suddenly do something that will make it exponentially harder, like for example teach half the students in the morning, half in the afternoon? On top of reminding kids all day long to keep their masks on and keep distance, to say nothing of trying to help kids when  they get stuck without being able to crouch at their side? All in the middle of a raging out of control pandemic in most states. (Unlike in most first world countries that got control of the virus first.) A lot of teachers would just quit or retire.

So, there is a need for out of the box thinking, in part involving creative leveraging of technology. Specifically VR, or Roblox, or SL. So with those videos it looks like someone may have some idea along those lines — yes SL had campuses before, but there never was much purpose to them. Now, maybe there is?

Sure, that is fine for the kids whose parents can afford gaming computers and VR gear and all that. Problem is, huge numbers of kids already got left behind with the distance learning the past school term because they dont have computers or even an internet connection. All this electronic learning just disadvantages kids who already are in tough life situations even more, and I feel will make inequality far worse than it already is.

[Vanity Bonetto]

2 minutes ago, Silent Mistwalker said:

Sansar was born under Rod Humble's tutelage. Ebbe "inherited" it and ran with it.

Now I'm wondering if Tilia was actually created with this acquisition in mind. A preparation for an expected future (now past) transaction. 

The end is nigh?

You can stop wondering - just google Tilia and you will find out in no time what Tilia is and why it was created. And that it wasn't linked to Sansar or this acquisition. But of course, spreading endtime rumours is more fun. Why sticking to facts, right?

[Silent Mistwalker]

6 hours ago, Love Zhaoying said:

Only wrong answers:

"Micro-wave Mug"

"Somebody really likes sea-foam"

"Ask your Barista if Cuppa-Salt-water is for you!"

"In Russia, Tea stirs you!"

"Spoon not required"

"When the company post-sale tea party favors kick in"

The original was "tempest in a tea pot" but I suppose a tea cup is a sufficient substitute. 😁

[Natzuka Miliandrovic]

10 hours ago, Nika Talaj said:

I've spent decades in venture-funded companies, and I've seen acquisitions be very successful.  But acquisitions by investment firms are delicate beasties - it is easy for them to turn into a liquidation frenzy.  However, in this case, LL doesn't have all that many assets that would bring much, except Tilia. 

Then again, I have felt for a while that @Grumpity Linden would be a logical choice to run LL if Ebbe were to step aside.  Interesting that she commented on this thread, when no one else did.

Not here to stir drama but you spent decades in venture-funded companies and you would promote to CEO someone just because they have the kindness to entertain your thoughts, while completely overlooking how @Patch Linden turned SL around, revived the community and started to give back to residents?  I mean girl, I am commenting too, so I guess I will be the next CEO ;P

[Amanda Dallin]

2 minutes ago, Silent Mistwalker said:

Now I'm wondering if Tilia was actually created with this acquisition in mind. A preparation for an expected future (now past) transaction. 

The end is nigh?

Tillia was created several years ago so doubtful it was with this acquisition in mind.  It's recently become more visible.  It was created to meet the requirements of United States Financial regulations.  LL hopes to sell it's services to other environments that use micro-transactions but don't wish to go through the process for meeting those financial regulations.  This might be the value seen by these investors for purchasing a controlling interest in Linden Research.  In the meantime, SL is more profitable than Tillia and also the source of Tillia's profit.

[Love Zhaoying]

10 minutes ago, Silent Mistwalker said:

The original was "tempest in a tea pot" but I suppose a tea cup is a sufficient substitute. 😁

Well yeah, that's why I said "Wrong answers only" and did not include the well-known "tempest" references. To make everyone else guess what was actually intended by the original poster.

According to Google, both the "teacup" (British English) and "teapot" (American English) versions are valid.

[Coffee Pancake]

53 minutes ago, Daniel Voyager said:

Ebbe Altberg says that there are no plans for drainage here and it's great to remain independent. 

The plan now is the build and grow. 

That's not good.

Why would anyone buy a company and then not care what it does. Or expect a company that has not shown growth in normal times to be able to produce it now without drastic change.  (an uptick during a global pandemic is not growth). SL's base performance has been mediocre at best, more like a decade long irreversible slow decline while management run around focused on everything that isn't the core product with it's problematic userbase and reputation.

SL is where it is despite management efforts to clean it up (zindra), get businesses to come play (M) , replace it entirely (Sansar), carve out the one generic part of the platform that can't possibly be tainted by association with it's users (Tilia).

Expecting :

Finish the cloud move, fire everyone.

Launch Tilia (it's already in the dock, crewed up, tanks fueled .. how convenient).

Let SL do what SL do, slash costs, restructure income, put into maintenance mode and let it quietly wind down. All being well, by the time it fails Tilia will be established and no longer need this one much maligned customer, and let the hardcore few who wish to remain working on SL continue right to the end.

 

Where will SL be in 10 years?

What does it need to get there?

"more of the same" .. is not that, and it's pretty fair to say after 15 years of dogged refusal to ever break content, architectural change wont be on the cards.

 

[Mark Atlas]

LOL Exactly like I barely write here cause I just dont like to get in all this conversations, but is so silly that just because someone types then gets all the prizes. First of all the conspiracy theories happening here are worse then the game of thrones predictions. We dont know anything and the speculation is up to the roof and making stories of stuff we dont know and have no idea. Think we should hear more from them before get to panic and start saying stuff that we dont know.

Second, I think you are right, if we want to give credit to someone that gotta be @Patch Linden . Someone that has been part of the community, He's been one of us since the start and anytime you look for him guess what he's around to answer questions, so I value that a lot cause you can see that he cares. All the love for every Linden but my bet would be on him being the best choice.

[Silent Mistwalker]

1 hour ago, Daniel Voyager said:

Ebbe Altberg says that there are no plans for drainage here and it's great to remain independent. 

The plan now is the build and grow. 

Ah a glimmer of hope. Please, don't let us down Ebbe. I haven't been defending you against the RL SO for nothing all these years. Don't make me a liar. SL is much more preferable to MMO games since SL is not a game but a creative platform with the ability to socialize as a huge plus.

[Theresa Tennyson]

5 minutes ago, CoffeeDujour said:

Or expect a company that has not shown growth in normal times to be able to produce it now without drastic change.

 

The fact that Second Life won't be tied to a fixed hardware base any more is a drastic change.

[Silent Mistwalker]

42 minutes ago, Solar Legion said:

The difference is not subtle.

Linden Lab itself is being bought. The ownership of Second Life and Tilia has not changed - yet. Linden Lab still owns both and unless something changes will continue to own both with the only difference being that Linden Lab/Linden Research is itself now owned by a parent company.

This is not a difficult to grasp concept.

Linden Research dba Linden Lab. dba = doing business as

I only mention it because it does make a difference, legally speaking.

[Sylvia Tamalyn]

I'm not sure why people are arguing over who should run LL next, like Ebbe is going somewhere, but I find it interesting that all of a sudden people are chiming in with their first and only posts to promote Patch for the job. 

(Nothing against Patch, of course. I just like to point out coincidences.)

[Amina Sopwith]

6 minutes ago, Theresa Tennyson said:

The fact that Second Life won't be tied to a fixed hardware base any more is a drastic change.

What are the implications of that? I'm not technical.