Zee Linden CFO is leaving Linden Lab?

Top managers tend to have 'careers', where they stay a few years and move on.

And its a business school, and pardon me while I remain quite sceptical of "business school suits" ... especially from the madhouse in Massachusetts

No, it was his idea all along. By the way, Zee's not your regular accountant. He's an engineer (first) with a business school degree from Harvard (second). There is a major difference. Major. By all accounts he's a smart guy. But I really do not like the direction he took LL and some of the hamfisted ways the private estates were dealt with. And he was hired to take LL into a "new direction". Make no mistake on that.

http://www.accountancyage.com/accountancyage/features/2215022/profile-john-zdanowski-second

"His experience with HouseValues’ IPO was reportedly one of the reasons he was hired at Linden Lab, and the recent announcement that Rosedale would be stepping down as CEO fuelled speculation the company may go public. Zdanowski was tight lipped on the topic, except to say: ‘We certainly have the numbers and we could go public now, the financial markets notwithstanding.’"

And statements like this make me wonder:

http://www.cfo.com/article.cfm/9858165

"We sell each region as an island for $1,675 as an upfront setup fee, and then we charge $195 a month for the monthly maintenance fee, which is a recurring charge."

In October 2007. HRM. NO ITS 295 a month for private estates unless it got grandfathered! That really annoys me!

That direction of harsh price hikes may have worked at first, but it came to major fail last year, when prices were dropped from the former highs for buying full sims, while *not* lowering any monthly fees, then the coup de grace handed with price drops on openspaces, which raped the full estate sales, then the subsequent OOPS to implement new price hikes on openspaces. People went and installed Opensims, which by now are good enough for doing offline building. I suppose more and more are tiering down to just what they need to get by in SL these days, given the economy.

Any accountant should have known that those price drops after such huge price hikes would rape many a balance sheet, and it did. Many estates folded. Many are just managing to hang on.

Also there was quite a lot of speculation about Zee being hired to help take LL public, given that was his previous experience with the real estate corp he was at before (Housevalues). Well, that kinda got shut down last year with the financial crash - no IPO on the horizon for LL now I am sure.

So pardon while I am a little less than worried about any possible departure of Zee. Until I see further information anyway. But I won't start the tapdancing yet, because I have heard no announcement of any resignation. I'm still bitter, though.

I won't be shedding any tears for Zee Linden or his Tier increases. Seems like the old guard have either left the building or are leaving...only to be replaced by M.Linden's groupies instead.

Not sure which is worst!

Whilst I don't see eye to eye with Zee on every policy he came up with his customer relations in getting involved in the forum posts was way above any other Linden.

On the VAT issue I sent many emails to Zee, sent him copies of my correspondence with the tax authorities and he looked to see if he could see a way to avoid us having to pay it, alas he couldn't but the fact that he at least looked at the info was encouraging.

oops

that guy is perhaps the shadiest of all characters to ever take the name 'linden'.
im not unhappy to see him go.

if you knew anything about what that guy was up to prior to landing at the lab you wouldnt be rolling your eyes.

Sorry, I was just checking out my eyebrows.

Working for AIG?

*they work?*

Well, interesting. His statement is rather brusque, leading one to believe that his leaving is not entirely voluntary. From a career point of view, I'm surprised he's leaving - the companies he's been with before had nowhere near the stature of LL. Even though he has been through one IPO, that one has minimal cachet compared to LL's - one could even question whether it was well-considered, given what happened afterwards with the company.

M may just want someone else in place for when the economy picks up and LL goes public. Watching what he's done with marketing, it seems to me that he likes to have "his own people" around him. Not uncommon. And, since recessions give competition a chance to catch up to market leaders, LL may begin to feel pressure to go public sooner rather than later. For sure 3D toolkits for folks to build their own virtual environments are emerging left and right.
.

I sure hope the economy does pick back up..I say that seriously because i just don't see it happening any time soon..
i think there will be all the time in the world to catch up to the market leaders since most of them folded..
that whole bailout was to cover CEO rear ends and to get some spending money..
Paulson didn't wait a month to say he would not be using that money on the places that were the reason for asking for it..
the only thing that was gonna stop or slow down what was going on was something happening big enough for everyone to notice..And still took more money right in front of our faces..

I really do hope it gets better soon..because a lot of people are heading for food stamps that have never had to use them before..
something has to give sooner or later in one direction or the other..i do hope it is an upward direction from this hole we are in..and i mean that sincerely..

i am saying this mainly because i hope someone will counter this with something that will put some hope back in it for me..
if there was ever a time i wanted to be so wrong ..it's right now..
i just want to know there is some kind of light out there at the end of this tunnel and not cave in at the exit..

i'm sorry if i strayed off topic ..but it felt good to hear you say..when the economy picks back up..
i'm kind of hoping you know something that i am not seeing

Maybe it's got absolutely nothing to do with recent inworld policies/events/politiocal discisions.
It could be the novelty of working with us for the next 20 years wore off?

What happens on April 15th?

that is the deadline date for federal income tax filing

that would be this right?


https://blogs.secondlife.com/community/features/blog/2009/03/27/moving-on

Maybe he sees the error in letting the teens onto the main grid and wants out before something bad happens....

He's only been CFO since September of 2006.

Lindens are like mayflies. Biped endoskeleton mayflies. Big ones.

Hm. Well. There has been a lot of controversy surrounding Zee, and yes, I have been very much on the 'other side' regarding some of his policy decisions.

He was, however, engaged and informed. He replied to email, was always cordial, and he visited my estate casually once and talked to residents there.

There is a lot remaining that reflects very well upon him:

* I can continue to turn effort into income on this platform
* Even after some things that I would consider mistakes, the good far outweighs the bad. If it wasn't, we'd all be elsewhere.
* $L, cashouts, purchases and LindeX arbitrage have been reasonably reliable for years
* Never was a resident exposed to Company cashflow issues
* All the boring, dependable financial stuff... works. This silent success, along with the USD to back it up, is the real win here.


And finally, he recently managed to talk with us in these forums; and was plainspoken about successes and failures.

Because of that, especially, I have to call it like I see it: He is an honourable man.

Godspeed, Zee.

I tried to email, but his email address bounced; it is no longer active.

in the US? AKA deadline day, or Doomsday Eve (april 16th being Judgment Day)

so, CFO leaves, last day to file taxes ing the US.... have LL's been filed? Who's job is is that? hah!