Secondary firm Saints Capital takes a stake in Second Life owner Linden Lab
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Joshooah Lovenkraft
Just Joshin'
Join date: 28 Dec 2007
Posts: 1,376
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01-11-2010 13:20
http://games.venturebeat.com/2010/01/11/secondary-firm-saints-capital-takes-a-stake-in-second-life-owner-linden-lab/From: someone "Secondary investment firm Saints Capital has acquired a stake in virtual world startup Linden Lab, the owner of Second Life.
Venturewire reported that Saints Capital acquired the stake from an existing investor, and that Linden Lab was not involved in the transaction. That means that one of Linden Labs’ current investors or employee stakeholders sold the shares to Saints.
Linden Lab has raised more than $19 million from investors including including Benchmark Capital, Catamount Ventures, Globespan Capital Partners and Omidyar Network. Secondaries firm Stratim Capital acquired a small equity stake in the company in 2009. Linden Lab declined comment.
Second Life launched in 2003 and it has about a million monthly users. The number may be small, but it’s an active community. Second Life expects transactions between users will top $500 million this year. The company has more than 340 employees." I wonder who sold their shares?
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Ann Otoole
Registered User
Join date: 22 May 2007
Posts: 867
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01-11-2010 13:30
Such activity isn't really news. You can follow this sort of activity at http://www.sharespost.com/companies/linden-labThere could be a zillion reasons that have nothing to do with Linden Lab other than it was an asset that could be liquidated. |
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Osprey Therian
I want capslocklock
Join date: 6 Jul 2004
Posts: 5,049
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01-11-2010 13:31
Awesomely antique picture accompanying the article.
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Nika Talaj
now you see her ...
Join date: 2 Jan 2007
Posts: 5,449
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01-11-2010 13:40
Shares in private companies continue to grow in value proportional to the perceived "valuation" of a private company. I don't know LL's current valuation, but I would be surprised if they hadn't raised significantly in value since the original stock grants were made. Could be someone who is not known to be affiliated with LL at all. Early investors included "Other notable individual investors including current/former executives from Apple Bank of America and Goldman Sachs." One also must consider that all early employees had stock and are now fully vested. One of the first 10 employees may need cash for anything, including investing in some other new venture - for example, whatever Philip's new gig is. Or that big house on the hill that has finally hit rock bottom price  One thing to take away: if LL were perceived to be in trouble, no one would have bought those shares. |
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Pussycat Catnap
Sex Kitten
Join date: 15 Jun 2009
Posts: 1,131
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01-11-2010 13:45
From: Nika Talaj One thing to take away: if LL were perceived to be in trouble, no one would have bought those shares. The outside world isn't aware of all of the strife going on inside of SL over the last year. Which means things are ripe for a bubble bursting if all the mess and loss of active residents ever gets out... |
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Nika Talaj
now you see her ...
Join date: 2 Jan 2007
Posts: 5,449
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01-11-2010 14:01
/me wonders if Ansche Chung also may have some shares, since she had 30% of SLX. Also, of course, other stockholders in SLX may have gotten LL shares.
That acquisition was announced Jan 20th 2009, so the actual date of it may have been a little earlier, and the mandated holding period for the stock could have been one year.
*shrugs*
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Amity Slade
Registered User
Join date: 14 Feb 2007
Posts: 2,183
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01-11-2010 14:54
Not big news, but two things about the write-up caught my eye.
One is that Linden Lab is still described as a "startup."
The other is that Linden Lab has attracted $19 million from investors. I'm pretty sure that around the time I got here three years ago, they had already gotten $17 million of that investment money. So that's around $2 million more in the past three years?
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SuezanneC Baskerville
Forums Rock!
Join date: 22 Dec 2003
Posts: 14,229
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01-11-2010 17:43
I'm kinda tired of LL being called a start-up.
I don't know what the official definition of the term "start-up" is but LL does not qualify in my book.
I guess some businesses might like being called a start-up forever because it provides an excuse for the products being ragged and the customer service not being up to snuff.
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So long to these forums, the vBulletin forums that used to be at forums.secondlife.com. I will miss them.
I can be found on the web by searching for "SuezanneC Baskerville", or go to
http://www.google.com/profiles/suezanne
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http://lindenlab.tribe.net/ created on 11/19/03.
Members: Ben, Catherine, Colin, Cory, Dan, Doug, Jim, Philip, Phoenix, Richard,
Robin, and Ryan
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Void Singer
Int vSelf = Sing(void);
Join date: 24 Sep 2005
Posts: 6,973
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01-11-2010 20:08
From: SuezanneC Baskerville I'm kinda tired of LL being called a start-up.
I don't know what the official definition of the term "start-up" is but LL does not qualify in my book.
I guess some businesses might like being called a start-up forever because it provides an excuse for the products being ragged and the customer service not being up to snuff. i think they are using it in the sense that it has no (current) direct competitors in it's market, or possible in the sense of lower numbers than other similar (in the writers mind) products... but I agree, 7 years is a bit old to call it a start up (more if you count development time), and it's probably a convenience for LL to easily excuse any of it's lacks.
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