Second Life Officially Acquired by Holding Company, Ending Era as Aspirational Startup

2021 starts with an ending of some kind, as briefly mentioned at the tail end of a New Year announcement on from Second Life management:

Another noteworthy development for the new year is that Linden Lab has new owners! As announced in mid-2020, an investment group led by Randy Waterfield and Brad Oberwager signed an agreement to acquire the company subject to regulatory approval by financial regulators in the U.S. related to Tilia Inc.’s status as a licensed money transmitter as well as other customary closing conditions. We are pleased to share that the regulatory review has been completed and Linden Lab is now under new ownership. 

Specifically Linden Lab is now officially owned by the Waterfield Group, which buys companies that make a decent profit and helps keep them profitable. Second Life is even listed on Waterfield's homepage as a network property (screengrabbed above), alongside a host of obscure/semi-obscure firms. (And, surprisingly, Goldman Sachs.)

And as the author of The Making of Second Life, I have to admit that this is not at all a future I saw for the virtual world. Twelve years ago, insiders (including myself) fully expected Second Life to enjoy a successful IPO, or perhaps as likely, to get acquired by a major company like Microsoft or Electronic Arts. Around that time, we saw Second Life becoming an integral part of the Internet's next generation, transforming multiple industries and mainstream culture itself, with Linden Dollars even becoming the world's most used electronic currency. Now, instead, it's listed as a portfolio holding beneath software companies specializing in contact center technologies and strategic solutions (Digital Data Voice Corporation) and cloud-based oil and gas software (NeoFirma).

It's an ironic end, but I don't mean to be completely downbeat: While Second Life didn't turn out to be the next generation of the Internet, it did pioneer the path for the many next generation virtual worlds that do stand a chance of becoming just that, and will continue being an inspiration for that goal. 

Anyway, what's all this mean for the average Second Life user?

In the short term, likely nothing -- for good and bad. As the announcement insists:

While the owners may be new, things are “business as usual” in Second Life. Last year saw strong growth for our virtual world and, as a result of this acquisition we expect even more resources in 2021 to further improve and grow Second Life in the future.

As long as those resources maintain and improve Second Life's profit margin with existing users, all will be well. At the same time, we should probably not expect any daring or sizeable investments in Second Life development -- that's not typically how investment companies like Waterfield act, especially when they have little or no experience in a particular space. (In this case, virtual worlds/online games.) For similar reasons, we should also expect substantial steps taken, to maintain that profit margin -- increase in user fees and subscription drives, on the one hand, and on the other, unfortunately, budget cuts.

Comments

[Adeon Writer]

I've considered SL in maintenance era for the last 5 years anyway, so doesn't really change anything in my mind.

[JubJub Forder]

@Adeon Writer
Sansar did take a lot of resources from SL, however, there's been plenty of change for the better in SL in the last 5 years. For instance - we're in 'the cloud' now and the benefits are quite noticeable. Little changes like a 50% increase in prim allowance barely get noticed.

[Carlos Loff]

Lag, non intuitive viewer and High Fees doomed SL

[irihapeti]

agree with JubJub. Has been plenty of noticeable improvements over the last 5 years, even with the resource budget diversion to the Sansar project

now that the diversion is no longer happening then I think there is some scope for an increase in development budget resources will also allowing for healthy dividends to be extracted by the new owners. Then too, I think for the new owners the acquisition is a lot more about Tilia potential than it is about Second Life, even tho Second Life is important as a continuing revenue stream for the forseeable future

i don't see any major changes to user fees coming any time soon (over the next few months at least) without a re-packaging of service offerings. Different packages of Premium for example. Merchant, Home Owner, Builder, etc

if Linden were to put up fees without repackaging (like for example another increase in Marketplace fees without new compensatory features) then it would cause issues with the existing customer base. Without new packaged features it would just be seen as a gouge

i think tho, it will be steady as it goes for some months yet. The cloud uplift is still a major undertaking to yet be completed

a significant effect for the better of the cloud uplift project (amongst other things) has been on vehicle region crossings. There can still be issues with vehicle region crossings but nowhere near what they used to be, now that both Linden and resident vehicle builders have a better understanding of what can be

the Bellissaria Linden Homes project seems to be going well, lots of new Premium accounts being established by residents to partake in this

from Linden reports also, the Last Name programme has been successful for them, even tho we as resident consumers sometimes grumble about the price

so pretty much I think that fees for new offerings and/or packages do find customers able and willing to pay

[Bones]

He's dead, Jim.

[cashed-out]

Linden Lab shareholders are all cashed out now, too

[Giulio Marchetti]

It would happen, sooner or later. As the old adage says, what goes around, comes around.

I am thinking of all the Bellisseria residents who might find themselves homeless in the process :-D

[hm]

I just hope that no Habbo2020 tier BS is on thier agenda.

[Ken]

Uhhh hello? Nobody's going to talk about the elephant in the room like competing with decentraland. Essential and sucks second life is awesome when is second life going to get an nft Marketplace and really start to compete with the big boys? Second life is better it would be justified to have it on crypto!

[David Poppleton]

I wish I could afford proper toilet paper. My finger goes right through the ones I am currently using and touches the ass.

Regards,
David Poppleton

[Mike Ock]

It’s good that this holding company took over and fired so many of the woke multi color haired morons that ruined SL. It’s now being run as a proper revenue generating business and not a freak show of mentally ill furries.