LINDEN RESEARCH, INC. TO BE ACQUIRED

[Dreamer Pixelmaid]

3 hours ago, Nika Talaj said:

Um, no.  Grumpity (SORRY!!!) is very senior and has a breadth of experience in a variety of industries and leadership positions to which Patch (SORRY!!!) cannot yet aspire.  He comes out of a customer service background.  He's done EXCELLENT work, and is indeed responsible for much growth.  He has been rewarded with a VP position, an excellent advance.  Incidentally, in his former role, I believe he reported to Grumpity.

If you've ever listened to interviews with her, she is very knowledgeable about the BUSINESS of LL, as well as about the product.  

But this is moot speculation.  No executives are going anywhere at the moment, lol.

A few things...

First, using the real names of @Grumpity Linden and @Patch Linden here, as @Natzuka Miliandrovic already pointed out, wasn't right and it was totally unnecessary.

Second, you can speak well of someone without having to put anybody else down. I'm pretty sure @Grumpity Linden has done plenty of things for which she should be praised, and there was no need for your derogatory comment about @Patch Linden when even  you recognised he has done EXCELLENT work. 

Third, it is true that @Patch Linden has a background in customer service, but he has also worked as a director in the past and has a background in product and management, and to my knowledge he has never reported to @Grumpity Linden (somebody correct me if I am wrong).

It is times like this when we should stand together and support each other. It's too early to panic.

Group hug?

(Thank you for coming to my TED Talk 😉)

Edited to delete the names. I can't believe I forgot to do that! 🤦‍♀️

Edited July 10, 2020 by Dreamer Pixelmaid

[Love Zhaoying]

3 minutes ago, Dreamer Pixelmaid said:

A few things...

First, using the real names of @Grumpity Linden and @Patch Linden here, as @Natzuka Miliandrovic already pointed out, wasn't right and it was totally unnecessary.

Second, you can speak well of someone without having to put anybody else down. I'm pretty sure @Grumpity Linden has done plenty of things for which she should be praised, and there was no need for your derogatory comment about @Patch Linden when even  you recognised he has done EXCELLENT work. 

Third, it is true that @Patch Linden has a background in customer service, but he has also worked as a director in the past and has a background in product and management, and to my knowledge he has never reported to @Grumpity Linden (somebody correct me if I am wrong).

It is times like this when we should stand together and support each other. It's too early to panic.

Group hug?

(Thank you for coming to my TED Talk 😉)

Thank you! It was so confusing (some people quoted them and left the RL names out), I was going to run out of Pupcorn!

[Blaise Glendevon]

1 hour ago, Paul Hexem said:

I'm not worried at all, this is obviously great news.

Because Blizzard, BioWare, Infinity Ward, ID Software, and so many others did so well after they were acquired...

Blizzard might be the closest comparison, because of the length of time their primary multi-user world has been running. But as far as I know, WOW shows no signs of slowing and still receives regular improvements. 

[Amina Sopwith]

38 minutes ago, Theresa Tennyson said:

Let's say you run a company that makes apple pies. Let's also say that you have your own orchard that you get your apples from. The maximum number of pies you can make is limited by the number of apple trees you have. If you want to sell more pies you need to plant and maintain more trees.

On the other hand, if you consistently sell fewer pies than your orchard can support the upkeep you need to support the excess trees is wasted. Also, if a blight goes through your orchard you need to take care of it yourself and you can't make pies until the orchard is healthy again.

However, if instead of maintaining your own orchard you bought the apples you need from a larger orchard, or multiple orchards, you'd only need to buy the exact number of apples you need for the number of pies you make at any given time and if one orchard has problems you can quickly buy apples from another orchard without having to deal with whatever problems the first orchard is having directly.

Thank you, that is a great analogy. I was thinking more in terms of what it means at a practical level for SL users...does it have any implications for things like lag, inventory allowance, graphics complexity? Will the average user, or indeed a very technical user, notice anything different? I know these might be stupid questions (almost certainly), but like I said, I'm not technical. SL could be run by hamsters on a dynamo for all I know...

[Bugs Larnia]

1 hour ago, Brett Linden said:

Both!

Hi @Brett Linden! Will this be soonish, or did you guys send them to Help Island Public as a hazing ritual? 😜

Edited July 10, 2020 by Bugs Larnia

[Nika Talaj]

 

2 hours ago, Love Zhaoying said:

You are reading way too much into it. My reading is that the "Waterfield Group" is indeed the investment company behind this.  Why do you not think so, since it is pretty obvious?

Actually, I think it's pretty obvious that it is NOT the Waterfield Group.  What LL actually says in their press release is:

Quote

it signed an agreement to be acquired by an investment group led by Randy Waterfield and Brad Oberwager.

If you look at the Waterfield Group website https://www.waterfield.com/about/leadership/, you'll see that while J. Randall Waterfield (aka "Randy") is indeed the chairman & Ceo, Brad Oberwager is not part of the management structure at all.  I believe these two have formed a separate, probably small-ish, investment fund.  Randy has done a couple of ventures on his own in the past; I think that's all that's happening here.  Nothing mysterious.

This is indirectly backed up by Brett, my bold.

2 hours ago, Brett Linden said:

While we can't get into specific details about the deal itself, I want to emphasize the fact that this keeps Linden Lab as an independent venture led by two investors who have a great deal of awareness about what SL is and isn't. They are excited to join and help us grow both SL and Tilia while also respecting and recognizing the needs and sensitivities of the existing culture and community. 

I personally regard this statement by Brett as somewhat reassuring, see my earlier remarks.  There is nothing showing in either of Rnady or Brad's CVs to indicate that they would have a professional interest in SL. So....  it is not impossible that one or both of these two know SL as users, or as people who know users well, why not?  The best investors for SL would be folks who believe in the dream of SL as a virtual space for creativity and reinvention, as we do. and we should not dismiss that possibility.

[Blaise Glendevon]

1 minute ago, Bugs Larnia said:

Hi @Brett Linden! Will this be soonish, or did you guys send them to Help Island Public as a hazing ritual? 😜

If @Strawberry Linden isn't dressing them, why are they even bothering?

[Mollymews]

speculating more

it could be that nothing changes any time soon. Linden just continues on as it has been. Using revenues from Second Life to fund the incremental improvements course that SL has always been on, and using the revenues to build out Tilia as a service. Little to no additional capital injection into the Second Life component. If any additional funding then it goes into Tilia on the compliance and marketing sides

the Linden SL staff keep on coming to work, doing what they have always done.  We just keep on logging in to SL, paying our tiers and buying stuff, and making stuff and experiences to sell to each other

 

 

[Pussycat Catnap]

20 hours ago, animats said:

"Waterfield’s investment timeframe is forever. We work to grow book value at a reasonable pace with no exit in mind."

 

This is quite unusual. This is a company that like dull, boring, and profitable. It's like Berkshire Hathaway in the early years.

Their list of companies is in the link above.

Is that unusual or is it just that companies like that don't make the news.

Yes that's extremely anti-Silicon Valley. But I also suspect that if the world didn't actually have a lot of quiet boring companies like this, business would be utter chaos everywhere...

 

[Pussycat Catnap]

17 hours ago, CoffeeDujour said:

If SL dies, the tiny percentage of us that even know how to log into OpenSim will DDos all remaining grids in 5 minutes flat, and they wont come back up again. By the time things are up to speed, most everyone will have moved on.

What was the name of that one grid that about 8 years back or so... was based on Open Sim and was growing. I remember a lot of SL content creators were setting up second shops there.

INworld, IZworld, or something...?

For a brief moment it seemed to be becoming an alternative, then I never heard about it again

EDIT: Found it. Yeah no plan B: https://www.hypergridbusiness.com/2018/07/inworldz-to-shut-down-end-of-week/

 

Edited July 10, 2020 by Pussycat Catnap

[Solar Legion]

3 minutes ago, Pussycat Catnap said:

What was the name of that one grid that about 8 years back or so... was based on Open Sim and was growing. I remember a lot of SL content creators were setting up second shops there.

INworld, IZworld, or something...?

For a brief moment it seemed to be becoming an alternative, then I never heard about it again

Inworldz.

It collapsed thanks to drama. And financial issues.

[Mollymews]

Just now, Pussycat Catnap said:

INworld, IZworld, or something...?

Inworldz

it went along for quite a few years then ran out of customers in about July of 2018. Which was about the same time that the bottom of SL had been been found

[Love Zhaoying]

3 minutes ago, Solar Legion said:

Inworldz.

It collapsed thanks to drama. And financial issues.

That can't happen to us, right? 

Right?

[Solar Legion]

Just now, Love Zhaoying said:

That can't happen to us, right? 

Right?

Heh, part of that drama in the end revolved around the financial issues.

[Silent Mistwalker]

1 hour ago, Cornelius Collazo said:

Just curious, do we know any stats on Linden Research revenues and where they come from?  Specific or general?

- premium account fees

- land fees

- sale of L$ (I assume they take a cut from that, but don't know forsure)

- transaction activity (I assume they take a cut from that, but don't know for sure)

Once upon a time.

But not any more.

[Silent Mistwalker]

17 minutes ago, Pussycat Catnap said:

What was the name of that one grid that about 8 years back or so... was based on Open Sim and was growing. I remember a lot of SL content creators were setting up second shops there.

INworld, IZworld, or something...?

For a brief moment it seemed to be becoming an alternative, then I never heard about it again

EDIT: Found it. Yeah no plan B: https://www.hypergridbusiness.com/2018/07/inworldz-to-shut-down-end-of-week/

 

Plan B was to reopen under the name IslandZ (or something) then take the money and run. Which is what she (owner of InWorldz and Islandz) proceeded to do.

[Lancewae Barrowstone]

 “But my emails?!”  Oh wait, wrong quote.  

“Assets? What assets!?”  Hmmm, no, try this one.

 “It’s the data, stupid!” Darn, Is that even a quote?  Okay, this.

“Mining is the gold!”

Ahh, let’s get on with it.  No wait, one more!

“SL was data before data was cool!”   Alright, then add this one,

“Research. The word was “Research!"

NOW we have it.  And so let's go at it this way: 

[Warning:  Not for Chat ]

Years and years of mining fields, yield riches of patterns untold.  — anonymous field mouse

Brothers and sisters, we have been SOLD, dragged aboard some mutant ship of unknown entity.  How will we be used?  Who can know!? And NOW, oh heavens!… the head office sees my words and grumbles,  “Who IS this bigmouth, Lancewae Barrowstone!?  Pull up the data!  ALL OF IT!   Hmmm…oh I see what this creep has been up to. Hah!…. *mutant orange fingeroids rub together gleefully, while some octopus arm of a tongue wets hideous, flatulent flappers of a meat-rotted mouth.  Then, he calls out to the “girl” out front*.  “Sweet-cheeks (a little alien misogyny here?) bring me the Tilia files on this clown.”  “SIR!?” she gasps.  “Yes, you can do it!  Pull out your stylus drawer and the number is taped to the bottom and then get your little tushy in HERE with that DATA file! Heheh!… oh yessssss…. years of it.  Ohh! This human lives in a hovel!  I see it on Gmaps.  Oh look, here is the ex-wife’s home.  Now SHE got the nice house.  Hmmm phone number? Credit card is still good, what is SHE up to in that nice neighborhood down in El Salvador!  Maybe i check with DEA.  Let’s see what else I can put together…oh Myyyy my my!”  

Just kidding, Randall and Brad!  You know I’m just kidding here right?  Right?  And my fellows here, have some mercy on all of them too??  I’m pretty sure they need it.  

We are ALL sold down the galaxy now!

[End of NFC transmission]

~ goes silent ~

 

Then, the colored flag somewhere on a once bobbing buoy 

in the far reaches off San Francisco Bay

sinks silently now from sight.  

A little voice from shore calls out, “Do no fear change; embrace it!”  A hobbling old crabber bent under his dripping nets grumbles, “Change must earn faith.”  But no one hears.  A sweety in her St. Tropez hat leans to a friend, “Did you hear Peter’s mumbling in the boardroom that Big Data knows more about people than they know about themselves?”  “What an ass,” her friend adds, adjusting her “Alphabet” Tshirt.  “He also said, ‘Here, we get into peoples’ minds! Why would any company throw that away?’  Meh, if only he was better looking.”  She sips something from a colored straw. “I know; and owned a Model 3,” her friend sighed.

In the old man’s net one crab turns to another, “A chat platform is unbelievably rich.”  The other crab only issued an ooze of foamy bubbles from its mandible-like mouth.  Wisdom is worth little inside a net.  And so the sun set. Golden today.

[Sprout Evergarden]

my concern is they don't mention if it was a Leveraged buy out those usually end in saddling the bought company with millions or more in extra debt and usually end in bankruptcy and liquidation.

Secondly the two persons that bought the company seem more interested in the financial services part of LL's operation. Time will tell if they Spin that into it's own company than "Pump and dump" Second Life.

 

any Lindens reading this please understand that People do not trust "investment and capitol ferms" any more after seeing so many businesses die over the past two decades do to the above mentioned tactics heck there are whole you tube channels devoted to telling the stories of ruined businesses by greedy A....   I mean "investors"

Edited July 10, 2020 by Atosuria Daviau

[Maryanne Solo]

You say nay?

Viewed literally 10 minutes ago on some garbage clickbait "amazing online news story" site. (7:34am 11/07/20)
Which is the bread and butter of internet advertising. 🧐
 

[Elena Blossom]

In Philip Rosedale we trust....

I have experienced a couple of 'merges'/'acquistions' in my RL. There are so many variables, that the only things we can do is actually wait, but for sure we'll see a lot of changes in the community

By the way, Nika using Lindens' real names is not a big deal, all you have to to is got to Linden Labs executive team page to see the roles and RL pictures. So she didn't do anything wrong nor revealed secret information, she was just sharing

Edited July 11, 2020 by Elena Core

[Istelathis]

I for one, welcome our new investment overlords. 

[Rathgrith027]

4 hours ago, Brett Linden said:

Good day, all!

Just jumping in to respond to a few of the comments...

A few folks are speculating that this is the end of SL and nothing could be further than the truth. Any talk of dismantling or radically changing the fundamentals of SL that we know and love is inaccurate. While we can't get into specific details about the deal itself, I want to emphasize the fact that this keeps Linden Lab as an independent venture led by two investors who have a great deal of awareness about what SL is and isn't. They are excited to join and help us grow both SL and Tilia while also respecting and recognizing the needs and sensitivities of the existing culture and community. 

I swear you know the right time to come in for everything, Brett. Also, I posited this to Ebbe on Twitter, but wanted to bring it up here - would it possible to have a 'meet the investors' Q&A thing of sorts on Youtube or something to learn more about the acquisition and other questions people might have? Would really help calm the tides as it were.

Edit:
You literally answered the question I asked. I need to read through a thread before responding - I'm looking forward to meeting them, then!

Edited July 10, 2020 by Rathgrith027
derp

[Maitimo]

4 hours ago, Kimmi Zehetbauer said:

Searched out "Tilia" and got this.... "Tilia is a genus of about 30 species of trees or bushes, native throughout most of the temperate Northern Hemisphere." That was from Wikipedia!

Tilia is, specifically, a Linden tree. That's why the name Tilia was chosen.

[Amanda Dallin]

5 hours ago, Silent Mistwalker said:

WE all know what assuming things does. Please stop assuming I don't know the history of SL when I've been here for over 16 years.

YOU were assuming.  I was pointing out with facts why I think you are wrong.  Other people reading your comment might not know the history of Tillia since  it was much more behind the scenes until recently.  I answered you more for them than for you.

[Rathgrith027]

1 minute ago, Amanda Dallin said:

YOU were assuming.  I was pointing out with facts why I think you are wrong.  Other people reading your comment might not know the history of Tillia since  it was much more behind the scenes until recently.  I answered you more for them than for you.

Please, put a prim in it, we don't need infighting.