If LL floats an IP, can premium residents have first go?

I own a lot of land in SL (for me anyway..I'm sure there are people with a lot more who would consider my holdings small) and I was looking down the road and wondering if open source would render my investment into ashes. Then I thought, hey maybe if LL goes public, they will let folks who own land or have premium accounts have first go at buying the stock..

Now, I don't even know if this is legit practice in RL..offering to a select group first and I am assuming that LL is still a privately held company.

Could our land holdings be seen as owning shares in LL?

The land 'purchase' charge is only a setup fee; you legally hold no assets at all.

edit to add: My use of the word 'assets' is probably misplaced & confusing; your land holdings could be considered assets under certain circumstances, but those holdings would in no way be considered as having a 'share' of LL. You, like all SL land owners, are a customer paying for a service, and you could not be considered a shareholder.

Dunno, but it's a pretty cool idea. We'd have a better idea of what to vote on than the average Wall Street Joe Investor.

that wasnt not the question.
he didnt ask if his investment passed legal muster etc etc etc and invite people to debate whether his landholdings were a legally defined asset or not.

LL is privately held. Personally, I've always thought they would be going public. Looking at what's going on, my guess would be 1-2 years from now. But that guess is worth what you paid for it

They cannot reserve shares for anyone, though they could "gift" options, I suppose. But you really wouldn't for a group of any size. Nightmare with the SEC.

If they wanted the 'little people' to have a crack at it, they might hold a Dutch auction like Google did. Here's one article about how that works:
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/may2004/tc2004053_9962_tc024.htm

Again, tho, that would be a completely level playing field; residents would not get any preference. INWORLD, tho, LL could, for example, send residents gifts of Lindens or land or privileges of some kind any time they want. IPO would be a nice time to do that!

*hint, hint*

I just wondered if we would have any compensation if open source destroys the land value..
or server rental..I do claim my SL expenses as server rental at this point but inworld it is different..we treat it like land. But for the location, the view, etc. Its a weird combo.

Maybe in the end, it will be the value of what we put on the land that is key. Like Caledon being a location that is cool to visit will be the most valuable asset of all. Or having the skills to function here like html for the web.

So the new branding will be a recognizable experience in a world full of sims like it is with the web and a world full of web pages..some how the word gets around...

Still it would be cool to get first crack at LL shares..I would buy some for sure if nothing else for the historical value.

Isn't this a bit like asking if a new building goes up full of condos that you can own, are you get entitled to a refund on the rent you've been paying for an apartment?