Nika Talaj

/me sighs and plows ahead thinking about LL's acquisition. Here's what I want to know about any putative venture fund that may have been put together by Mr's Waterfield & Oberwager for this acquisition. Can I buy in? What's the lower limit for investment? ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /me ponders what Philip & Randy might talk about. Thinks about the buzzy way High Fidelity wanted to run its commerce. Then stares at the press release for the Upland deal for a bit. I wonder what LL's Tilia developers learned while putting together the service for that deal? Brings up a list of Waterfield Group's companies. My, there are a lot of companies from ... that one industry ... there. Not the biggest players, but good-sized. Small enough to move quickly, large enough to need some optimization in their business models. /me goes and watches a couple of videos about new developments in ... that one industry. You know, if Tilia wanted to put together a ... sort of suite ... of services for that one industry, Randy could put them in contact with a lot of potential customers. Maybe even lean on one or two a bit. LL would have to move pretty quickly, big players are already assembling services for them. But this industry moves slowly. And Tilia could underprice them, I think. And move very very quickly into deployment. Lot of "ifs", lot of hurdles to be jumped. But if that were to happen, well, Tilia could ... could ... GROW INTO A BIG, FAT, MONEY TREE! __________________________________________________________________________________ So here's the real point of this post: if any readers actually work for LL now, STAY THERE! From Ebbe on down to the lowest paid employee, STAY! If Tilia were to successfully go this route (which I don't even know is possible, do your own research), really, just cleaning up the leaves it drops would be lucrative. So if you're considering going, maybe stay until you see which way these two want to take the company. When the acquisition goes through, you will all have to sign new employment contracts, I bet. Some of you might want to pool your resources and hire a really good compensation lawyer, and put together some language for profit-sharing (or equity), that the new owners might find acceptable. Oh, and somebody get back to me about that fund, willya?

... triggered an immense wave of dress-up commerce. I don't think either of us have access to the numbers to back up a "what saved Second Life" assertion. Better adult content may have saved YOUR Second Life, but it's totally irrelevant to mine, and seems so to most of the people I know. Though it's important to LL, I'd be surprised if it drives the bulk of their revenue. Zindra isn't all THAT successful, you know. Anyway, this discussion is kinda a derail, isn't it? I'm still intrigued by Philip's presence in LL's press release on the acquisition. And still wondering about how this deal came together. I'm thinking about what Philip and Randy might talk about, should they find themselves at a bistro table stocked with wonderful imbibe-ables. And I see one common interest.

Letting a Houseboat go in about 15 minutes, say 10:30ish. Centrally located for good sailing, only 12 homes in the region, I think. Vics, Houseboats and Trads all nearby! http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Oh Cay/165/183/17 /me waves to rose happily

And Abnor goes on ... the east extension now curves past Grampas, following the curve of the coastal mountains, actually going through a pass at one point to run along the ocean for a couple of regions, then back inside the mountain range to run straight north up through the line of SSPE regions right next to the already released Log Home regions, until it runs out of land next to Faraday.

Indeed. When first abandoned, I don't think it went to them. But I think it bounced around a bit, and ended up in their hands. I really don't know what to think about what's happening there. I am glad I have no reason to return, because frankly I find whatever's going on beyond odd. At one point, my alt was standing in the home, surrounded by 9 avatars, recognizable members of those 2 land groups. Not only on their own properties, but there were 3 of them standing in the adjacent region, turned toward my house, seemingly just staring at it. Maybe they were just waiting around because they had some items in their inventories that others might need. Or maybe not. Neener neener! Glad to have moved on.

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

Development pace in Belli is definitely picking up again. Abnor has laid a lot of new train track, creating a long eastern extension to what Patch called the "Mountain LIne" in Logland (see Choo-Choo thread). Log home placement along the northern extension, along the west side of Big Bird Lake south of SSPE1199, is proceeding. Today, homes are also being placed in SSPE1202, a standalone region. And the rapid development of SSPE1196 & 7 continues, with landscaping well along, and a team of moles working steadily.

Abnor has just laid the aqua portion of the track.

/me tilts her head and re-reads the press release. You know, it's also interesting how High Fidelity shut down, made its VR codebase open, and yet ... oddly, persisted. Now it's in Beta with a highly scalable, patented audio platform. https://www.highfidelity.com/blog/summer-2020-beta-release-come-together-in-high-fidelity I wonder what other companies will the in the portfolio of this "investment group led by Randy Waterfield and Brad Oberwager". Ah, thank you. I didn't see this before. So they'd been working on this partnership for months, makes sense. If it works out, that would make TIlia worth a lot more than it is now. Also, I hadn't realized that Tilia has a separate CEO from LL (Aston Waldman, also LL's CFO), but of course it would have to.

I have a long acquaintance with that type of M&A, and I really doubt that is what is happening here. Trying that with LL would be high risk, with not as much payoff as is usual, unless they have a buyer for SL already partly committed. It is possible that SL will be spun off or sold, but I doubt that move would be in the course of the sort of profiteering you're thinking of. This is irrelevant, is it not? LL is not being acquired by the Waterfield Group, it is being acquired by "an investment group led by Randy Waterfield and Brad Oberwager." I haven't come across a name for this investment group. It is possible that it was created specifically for this acquisition. Perhaps Randy Waterfield's personal bio would be more relevant. https://about.me/jrwaterfield Even accounting for the fact that this bio was written/edited by him, it's impressive for a 47 year old, no? But it is hard to see what his personal interest in LL would be, unless it is in Tilia as an international micro-transaction platform. Same with Oberwager - it's easy to see some sort of fit for Tilia with Jyve, a gig economy staffing platform. But not so easy to see his interest in SL. That doesn't necessarily bode ill for SL - to my knowledge, SL has had at least one white knight on its board in its rather long history. Waterfield brings access to bunches of capital, Oberwager may bring another customer for Tilia, which would be a huge boost in its valuation. It is, of course, possible that either or both is familiar with SL and has bought into its dream, as a world people can escape to and reinvent their lives. Which brings me to Philip Rosedale, the source of the dream. Is anyone else wondering what Philip is doing in LL's press release? His quote is a bit longer than Ebbe's. His connection is cited as "founder", but that was a LONG time ago. Probably he still has a considerable financial stake in the company, no idea how diluted it's become. Seems to me there's more to the story of how this deal came together than meets the eye. I incline to think divesting Sansar was a precondition to make this acquisition happen. The layoffs in February, laser focus on the leap to the cloud, same thing.

Um, wut? All-time max concurrency was roughly 88,000, reached in 2009. In 2006, you were lucky if you could get 40 people in a region without it crashing. I don't see why that would affect a decision to leave SL, but, you know, different strokes.

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. I can kinda see how Tilia might be directly useful to Jyve, Bradford Oberwager's current company. And I can definitely see the appeal of Jyve to Phillip, since it seems like a useful platform for matching skills to short-term contract gigs, which is exactly how Philip ran High Fidelity. So I can see that Phillip might have some insight into this deal, and think it's great. Frankly, tho, it is hard for me to see how SL is a good match with Oberwager or the Waterfield Group. Maybe that's just a lack of vision, or information, on my part. Hmmm ... one way this acquisition could have come about is if Waterfield made an offer for Tilia, and LL/the board refused to split it off, insisting that the acquisition had to be all or nothing. Along that same line of thought, it would not be terribly surprising to me if SL were almost immediately spun out to some other firm, perhaps in a deal mediated by Globespan. it sounds farfetched, but stranger things have happened. Deals are what VCs live for. And that is particularly true of Andy Goldfarb, Globspan's managing director. And Ebbe? He might be contractually obligated to stick around, or perhaps his employment contract will be bought out. Maybe that's just my gut feel talking ... it just seemed that his whole interest in LL centered around Sansar; perhaps that's not fair to him. 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. This post may sound like I'm thinking this will not turn out well. I don't think we have enough information to say that yet. First the dust has to settle.

OMGAWD just found this! LOOKEEE LOOKEE!!!! The Mountain Line will extend all the way to the east!!!!!! The bright green lines, as well as the dark green ones, already exist on the ground, tho the map hasn't quite caught up.

Abnor has been busy laying more green proto-track & building bridges! The map hasn't quite caught up to what he did. You may have to squint to see the new dark green track and gray bridges in the pic below, I tried to goose it but the green background obscures things a bit. The bright green segment exists on the land but isn't showing on the map yet. Basically, new track extends from Randelsham Forest up to SSPE1195! The short aqua line connecting the existing northern track to the new railway bridge does not exist as yet. The climb from Dos Hermanos up to the bridge to Randelsham will be quite dramatic! The Mountain Line crosses Big Bird Lake 3 times in these new segments: > green proto-bridge at Dos Hermanos > railway bridge in SSPE 1130 > railway bridge at the southern edge of Wazoo

/me finishes her grocery store frappuccino and strolls up the coast to the pretty coastal vics in Lionel Crossing (odd that there's no train tracks in this region!), perched high above a channel overlooking some houseboats. Notes the water off the coast is in-region, easy to shove a boat down the slope and sail away. Yes, my pretties, this quarter I'm flipping says you'll have furniture today or tomorrow! Strolls off to listen to stories on rvat.org so she knows how to talk to her more conservative friends.

Yes, SSP2001 etc. were I think first posted about on May 3. https://community.secondlife.com/forums/topic/426577-ssp/page/175/?tab=comments#comment-2108222 They haven't changed one bit, to my eyes. I cannot locate SSP9, 379, etc., though I've clicked around where I think they SHOULD be. They are not findable by typing in their names. I see SSP1, SSP605, and the upper fringe of QA regions, but not those you mention as possibly under blue prims. Can you point out where they are? /me glances around Belli, notes incremental progress to SSPE regions happily, thinks maybe nothing released today, yawns, and goes off to watch Lincoln Project videos.

Personally, I believe the real prize lot in Kirowan is the parcel next to that one, way high up on the hill. It's not everyone's cup of tea, but the privacy is perfect and sometimes the views are really stunning. There's a rez zone at the bottom of the tor it sits on. Just to defeat the notion that hoppers always get what they want, let me say that there are (if I remember correctly) 6 copies of this region on the grid. I watched for 5 of them; was only online for the release of 2 of the regions, was able to snag 3 spots on one region using 1 hunter, and none of them were the parcel I was interested in. On the other release, I just got abandons, didn't get a single parcel in the region. C'est la Game.

That could work. You could be even simpler, and only allow it to be changed once an hour or so. Sometimes I wonder if the moles are short on scripting resources. Personally, if I were them, I wouldn't have taken the chance on making the whole circle a rez zone. There are ways to get around the 5-minute limit, and some of them are nice and low-lag and could be used just for party decorations, and some of them are abusive. Instead, I would put a dance ball out (in every large community area) that includes a large selection of both solo & couple dances, and would also script up a "Party" box that is a very special purpose rezzer usable by residents by reservation only, just for short-term decorations. I would also put out a simple scripted reservation board that coordinates with the rezzer, and prevents hogging time in the area. I am quite sure that this is possible, with close attention to specifications. But NOOOOO. I am really disappointed in this response. Always nice to hear from the Moles, but it is not actually respons-IVE. What it really says is: Please shut up, we are going to do exactly what we have done before. It does not acknowledge that these lovely community spaces are underutilized, it does not pick up or respond to any of the thoughts shared in this thread. It leaves one to speculate that the reason for this unresponsiveness is because LL/Moles do not think the community areas are underutilized because of any flaw in their setup, but because of a failure by residents to appreciate them. For the record: residents don't use them more because they are not as usable as the simplest DJ clubs all over the grid. The way that small DJ clubs do it is by having hosts that manage the club resources & gatherings; what I've been trying to do here is suggest more scalable ways to get some of the same facilities. Gah. Here I've spent more time trying to help LL, when they don't want to be helped. When will I learn.

You know, I never appreciated until now why Patch's avatar might be mouse-ish. But certainly every time he logs in I'm sure a whole bunch of residents pounce on him, hoping to ensnare him in their drama traps! i hope he has fun alts.

Thank you, and for the record, I did not remove her name from any post, because I never used it. I was not the person who originally posted about this. But thank you, and hopefully this is done and we can all return to happy hopping!

Btw, Blue, if you do check back, you will see that I specifically requested that names be removed from the post of the person who originally mentioned them. For the reason you mention: names often lead to inworld harassment. SL's forums are meant to be devoid of name-and-shame. And, fyi, the only reason why I checked today's region release was to further clear these folks from any suspicion that they systematically scoop up homes, which they do not. It is the first region release since Thatch Lea, so I thought it might lay some fears to rest. The point that I made was that neither of these folks seemed to have taken multiple homes this time around.

Sure, I'll take the text out of that post (done). Still puzzled about why you find it offensive, but who cares. You may be confused: I am not the person who originally mentioned her. Perhaps you should check back. I did not use her name at any point, and (if we're talking about the same person) her group did own 6 out of 18 (which is indeed 1/3 of that region) after release. She let a couple go by the next day, as I noted before, and I haven't checked to see how many she currently has. As I mentioned, I'd seen her take properties in other regions before, and never noticed anything odd about them. I did, if you recall, state that I do not believe she rents anything. I further stated, and I reiterate, that I believe there were two multi-property owners in that region. So I thought it was a good idea to try to be sure my rather nice parcel went to a different owner, that's all.

Well, of course, just about everyone on this thread plays the GOH; I don't see that anyone is trying to hide that. There's a whole thread on how you do it, so I don't know why you think you need to privately share it. Most don't take 1/3 of the properties in a given region release, tho, so I was just trying to be sure that mine went to someone who doesn't already have a property there. But if it offends you somehow (??? not clear on how it would), I can delete the text in my post. I really don't care that much about it, and certainly don't see anything offensive there.

bump

You are not alone. I have a pretty nice parcel in Thatch Lea that I intend to let go in the next few days. If anyone who posts here is interested, let me know privately. I will not be posting in this thread before abandoning it. http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Thatch Lea/198/241/33