Merwan Sells Out SLExchange.com

How many times must I say it? the rhythm method doesn't work.

Perhaps. This situation didn't seem like a mere ambulance to me however, but a central piece of infrastructure that had the promise of shifting the very nature of SecondLife.

So, does this mean we finally get an end to all the SLEX threads once and for all? :/

I only have one thing there. I set it to sell five copies at an introductory price. These sales have been pretty sluggish, less than 10% of inworld sales over the same time period, so I probably won't bother doing anything else with SLExchange for the time being.

I've noticed this as well, not from SLEX obviously - but from SecondServer, we run combination Web & Inworld sales through the same system, the ratio of which is about 3 to 1 favouring InWorld sales.

In regard to the topic at hand, I wish Merwan luck with whatever venture he decides to go into next.

-Adam

Interesting. Can you access the entire catalog in world with categories and search functionality?

I think SLExchange was in a different situation than SecondServer, as SecondServer had little (until recently) inventory.

Thank you Flipper, I appreicate it!

Well I wasn't killed by it - and I'm feeling buff lately.

And you look surprisingly hot in a tuxedo

Thanks Cris!


Interesting you mention the Titanic...

Throughout this ordeal I'd characterize Apo's actions as those of someone on the Titanic mopping up water from an overflowing bathtub.

It was all very, very bizarre.

Well, Anshe does have a certain degree of more access to new users that other people in SL do not. This could be very useful for finding buyers, as newer players probably buy more than older players (or, at least, are lower hanging fruit).

However, a lot of the senior players who build a lot are now skittish about SLExchange. It's not all that clear what's going to happen.

I guess if it were up to me, I'd rather have the sellers. Anyways, Merwan, I hope you didn't sign any non-compete agreements. I'd dearly love to see what would happen if you joined the secondserver.net or the slboutique team..

I'm suprised that it wasn't included in the deal with Anshe and SLExchange that you could no longer make comments in public about what happened. Seriously, that suprises me, as comments like this make your thoughts on Apotheus' actions pretty clear, if cryptic as usual. Anshe's somebody I would of thought would of requested a no public statements clause, if anybody would. After all if not, you have the power to harm her investment in SLEXchange with comments on Apotheus and on the situation that happened on SLExchange. If I was either of them I'd of put a gagging clause in without fail, protecting both you from them and them from you.

And that, following on from my previous post, would of been the second thing I included in any buy-out agreement... Again I'd be suprised if not.

It looks like it is a bit late for that.

It does, doesn't it. Unless there is one, in which case, Merwan's treading a fine line with comments like he made in his last post. I just can't believe that Anshe wouldn't of pushed for one, being the obvious business person she is. It's such an obvious thing to do in any sort of deal like this.

Well, I think the buyout offer would have had to been substantial to get those kind of things in the deal.

Given everything that has occured, it's difficult really to give SLExchange a serious valuation anymore.

And while I don't particularly like Merwan, I do respect his business skills, though I have to wonder how he let himself get sucked into something serious when this kinda thing could happen. Hopefully Anshe hasn't gotten herself seriously into something she can't extricate herself easily from.

Why? They're far from unusual things in deal contracts at all, in fact quite the opposite. In order for there to be any deal even talked about those two points would have to be in without fail, in my opinion. They're not normally bargaining points, they're standard.

Oh, everything is negotiable.

For example, let's sey they offered Merwan $100 USD (heh) for his share. Let's say Merwan said not bloody likely.

Then lets say, Merwan woke up and thought "oh I just want to get out and this will let me say I got out" and then called them up and said OK transfer the money and we have a deal.

Anshe / Apo thinking OK we've got him on the run lets not waste time with sending him a lengthy contract that he'll need to review and possibly reconsider.

My father did a lot of complex deals, sometimes the people on the other side got a little leary about the lawyers he would bring in and would say, as a part of the deal (because they couldn't afford the lawyers), the contract had to be at most one page.

Thus cutting out all the legalese and baring it down to the very bare essentials. Things like "you won't use any code in your possesion" may have been more important than "you won't talk about us" or whatever.

Of course, the real reason probably is just that they're all a bunch of rookies.

Haha, after all the problems SLExchange has had, if they didn't do this by the book, in writing and with lawyers they all need their heads examining. That's a whole lot of trust to put in relationships where trust hasn't been apparent in much abundance over recent weeks

True, but if the total valuation isn't very high, doing things by the book would be overkill, I think.

So tell me blaze, given the fact that you admit to the above, why in the hell your opinions on this matter should be taken seriously? You have appointed yourself judge when you wouldn't even make it through jury selection due to you self admitted bias. Just like most issues you bring to this forum.

Congratulations on resolving this situation, Merwan. I'm very happy that things worked out for you and wish you much luck on your future endeavors.

With that said, I don't know why but I'm a bit disturbed that Apo and Anshe are now running SLExchange together. Oh well. Out of the pan and into the fire.

~Ulrika~

i admire anshe for that. takes a lot more courage to walk the fire and help to fix stuff than to join the burning and pillaging mob.

Ahhh, Nolan, peace my friend.

Me too, thanks Torley.

I appreciate your perceptions Nolan!


And regarding luck, I like what Bill said -

"You do their work, and they shall have good luck, are you not he."
William Shakespeare