LINDEN RESEARCH, INC. TO BE ACQUIRED

[Enigma Bombay]

Did anyone else notice that four short (30ish seconds each) videos featuring turnkey Second Life academic campuses popped up on the official Second Life YouTube feed on July 8, the day before this announcement? I noticed them the morning of July 9 and wondered about it: 

https://www.youtube.com/user/Secondlife/videos

 

I know that the emergence of the 'rona has everybody scrambling to find new ways to connect with each other that aren't face-to-face; however I have to admit I'm skeptical about whether or not people really want to use Second Life for this since it was tried (and pretty much discarded) over a decade ago. So other than shopping a tired old virtual classrooms idea and milking Tilia (for whatever that's worth), I'm befuddled about why this investment company would purchase Second Life. Whatever the reason, I think they had better come out with a more robust public statement than Grumpity Linden making a few hurried reassuring comments on this thread. People are worried and wondering what's going on.

[Love Zhaoying]

4 hours ago, CoffeeDujour said:

Lets just put this one to bed right now. 

There is no Plan B.

NONE.

OpenSim barely has the capability to handle a tiny percentage of us, and it will take significant investment in development and infrastructure to get it into a state where it could even hope to stand ready "just in case".

OpenSim looks like SL from a user perspective, if you don't look too closely. To use a Minecraft analogy, Start digging and bedrock turns out to be 3 blocks down and the redstone is painted on.

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.

So..you're saying move to Sansar? 😹

[bigmoe Whitfield]

47 minutes ago, Love Zhaoying said:

So..you're saying move to Sansar? 😹

oh no.  I've got my own private grid that's stable at 55 people logged in lol.

Edited July 10, 2020 by bigmoe Whitfield

[Profaitchikenz Haiku]

We're Domed, I tell you, Domed

 

Domed, domed !

Domed for all eternity

Edited July 10, 2020 by Profaitchikenz Haiku

[Love Zhaoying]

4 minutes ago, Profaitchikenz Haiku said:

We're Domed, I tell you, Domed

 

Domed, domed !

Domed for all eternity

Is it Domesday already? My calendar is off.

[foneco Zuzu]

All i can say is wait and see.

But due to RL status right now i doubt SL users needed this kind of news at this moment!

So i must add that i believe we will see a lot of revenue lost in the next months.

 

[AyelaNewLife]

[Love Zhaoying]

I for one, welcome our new Robot Overlords!

 

[bigmoe Whitfield]

11 minutes ago, foneco Zuzu said:

All i can say is wait and see.

But due to RL status right now i doubt SL users needed this kind of news at this moment!

So i must add that i believe we will see a lot of revenue lost in the next months.

 

most of us have been through some big changes at the lab over the years,  we are still here,  we believe in LL and SL.   I'm gonna be here until they throw my collection of socks at me and tell me to get lost they are turning the lights off.

[Love Zhaoying]

1 minute ago, bigmoe Whitfield said:

I'm gonna be here until they throw my collection of socks at me

 

[Qie Niangao]

3 hours ago, Prokofy Neva said:

The chairman of the board is Jed Smith, and at least formally, wouldn't he be the seller?

Formally, yeah, I guess so; I was more wondering about the Mergers & Acquisitions courtship that must have preceded this transaction. I've known folks in that world, but never had much understanding of how it operates. It just seems like it would mean one thing if the previous Linden investors were actively seeking buyers, and something very different if the buyers were out hunting for a company just like Linden to add to their portfolios. Either way, of course, "it takes two to tango" and (as my father used to say) "the best time to buy is when it's for sale" so maybe I'm imagining a distinction where there's no real difference.

[bigmoe Whitfield]

@Ebbe Linden  we are awaiting you, we needs the info's, we needs the preciouses.

[Love Zhaoying]

4 minutes ago, Qie Niangao said:

Formally, yeah, I guess so; I was more wondering about the Mergers & Acquisitions courtship that must have preceded this transaction. I've known folks in that world, but never had much understanding of how it operates. It just seems like it would mean one thing if the previous Linden investors were actively seeking buyers, and something very different if the buyers were out hunting for a company just like Linden to add to their portfolios. Either way, of course, "it takes two to tango" and (as my father used to say) "the best time to buy is when it's for sale" so maybe I'm imagining a distinction where there's no real difference.

Current "owners" will make money on the transaction - or they would not be selling. Good for them.

[Love Zhaoying]

16 minutes ago, AyelaNewLife 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"

Edited July 10, 2020 by Love Zhaoying

[Jackson Redstar]

when is it ever a GOOD thing to be bought by an investment group? With Linden getting all the user data onto Trillia, and user data likely the most valuable asset Linden owns.....nothing lasts forever, and Im sure SL is an aging dinosaur of the tech world - but should SL see its final curtian call, its not hard to think of all the people it will affect - shut ins who rely on SL for daily interactions, all the vendors who if not making a RL living, generate a good side income, all the people in relationships who only communicate through SL.. It's good the stay positive but when being acquired by an investment group who's primary goal is to maximize returns for it's backers - it's hard to see the upside here. And because of the nature of the SL ecomony they will be putting out all these 'don't worry, things are great' messages right up to the day they throw the switch and shut the grid down......

 

[Cinos Field]

It's hardly a storm in a teacup when it's literally the entirety of SL being sold off, either. Like if there's ever been a moment for drama in SL's history, it's specifically this one.

But if we're lucky, all they'll do is invest enough to draw new players and then sponge the benefits (while letting the lindens actually run it). It'd take a specific kind of rich idiot to try to completely change SL without having the expertise, and particularly without recognizing why it's still a thing when all the other virtual worlds failed.

Edited July 10, 2020 by Cinos Field

[bigmoe Whitfield]

23 minutes ago, Jackson Redstar said:

when is it ever a GOOD thing to be bought by an investment group? With Linden getting all the user data onto Trillia, and user data likely the most valuable asset Linden owns.....nothing lasts forever, and Im sure SL is an aging dinosaur of the tech world - but should SL see its final curtian call, its not hard to think of all the people it will affect - shut ins who rely on SL for daily interactions, all the vendors who if not making a RL living, generate a good side income, all the people in relationships who only communicate through SL.. It's good the stay positive but when being acquired by an investment group who's primary goal is to maximize returns for it's backers - it's hard to see the upside here. And because of the nature of the SL ecomony they will be putting out all these 'don't worry, things are great' messages right up to the day they throw the switch and shut the grid down......

 

LL is legally required to collect information when it comes to the regulations imposed on it by the goverment,  they are not skirting that one no matter how much people whine and complain.    also they are not mining or collecting data to sell it,  LL is one of the last ones I trust online with my data.

[Love Zhaoying]

3 minutes ago, bigmoe Whitfield said:

LL is one of the last ones I trust online with my data.

I trust LL with me "day-ta", not sure about my "dah-ta".

[TheVeryFirst]

 

I could have missed it but, does the new company have other investments in the Adult Industry? Or will they come in and “clean it up”?

Will their board be okay with, and we now have this porn sight, because that is how SL is viewed by many. It could be a thorn in their side that they don’t understand yet.

I have been wondering what brought on the change to Search in world, up until recently you got a face full of Adult ads as soon as you opened Search, but that changed (for the better as I see it) a few weeks ago. Has the “clean it up” already started?

 

[Jackson Redstar]

18 minutes ago, TheVeryFirst said:

 

I could have missed it but, does the new company have other investments in the Adult Industry? Or will they come in and “clean it up”?

Will their board be okay with, and we now have this porn sight, because that is how SL is viewed by many. It could be a thorn in their side that they don’t understand yet.

I have been wondering what brought on the change to Search in world, up until recently you got a face full of Adult ads as soon as you opened Search, but that changed (for the better as I see it) a few weeks ago. Has the “clean it up” already started?

 

I think one goal of Sansar was to create a sexless virtual world, cause yea, its pretty hard to get corporate investors to come into SL when the first thing when you open of the search is.....boobs and escorts 

[Cinos Field]

If we can assume the investors to be rational actors, they won't try to clean up the sexy stuff. If that's what they wanted they could've bought any number of virtual worlds, all of which would surely be far cheaper.

The SL economy is probably like 75% genitals. (the rest is clothes)

Not to mention, how would you even do that? Ban all poseballs with lewd animations? Monitor all residents all the time? No, that one won't happen with this platform.

 

 

Edited July 10, 2020 by Cinos Field

[Ted McGregor]

It' s been succesfully acquired ? 😦

 

Hmm... guess we are safe, since apparantly nobody told them we basically only screw around in here with meshes ... 

 

[Maitimo]

My guess is that the new owners will continue to invest in SL for a while, to make it a saleable proposition. I think they'll continue the push to the Cloud but I don't think we'll see any more private regions being available for sale, and I don't think we'll see any more development in Bellisseria. 

At some point in the near future (a year or so) they will split up Tilia from SL and sell them separately; Tilia will make big bucks for them as a payment engine for all sorts of games and apps with microtransactions. The worry is who, if anyone, would buy SL without Tilia?  The only obvious answers are Google, Facebook or Disney. If it's the two former ones, then it's goodbye SL for sure; they'll collect our personal data and then pull the plug, as they do with pretty much everything they buy. If it's Disney, they'll keep it going but with strictly no adult content, which means no user-creation without some kind of approval process. And if these new investors can't sell SL as a separate concern for more than they paid for it, they'll just sell the hardware and pull the plug anyway.

On the other hand, there have been takeovers and sales that have survived and even thrived; Sansar (so far) and Flickr both come to mind as being purchased by an unknown and kept going. So there is a chance, albeit a very small one.  Maybe the guys who bought Sansar will think that SL is better for them; they'll buy SL and close Sansar instead.

But now is a good time to make sure you have ways of keeping in touch with your SL friends outside of SL. 

[Cinos Field]

There is absolutely no way Disney or Google would buy something with SL's reputation. Facebook... Possibly, but they tend to invest in tech booms rather than "mature platforms".

[ChinRey]

8 hours ago, Sabrina Tamerlane said:

The risk here is to see SL turned into a cash cow, with higher upload prices for example.

Second life has been a cash cow for investors for 15 years or more, there's nothing new there.

  

7 hours ago, Rex Cronon said:

since our new overlords to be are not a game company is very likely they are only interested in money..

The old owners weren't game companies either so again, nothing new.

Edited July 10, 2020 by ChinRey