Linden Lab Seeking Second Life in Valuation
The value of Linden Lab, which operates the virtual world Second Life, has plunged by more than 21%, according to SharesPost, which tracks the private secondary market.
In late June, Linden Lab brought back founder Philip Rosedale as interim CEO, after CEO Mark Kingdon stepped down.
The current value of Linden Lab is estimated by SharesPost to be about $271 million or about $100 million less than a year ago.
The plunge in value appears related to today’s news that the company is closing the five year old "Teen Second Life" virtual world at the end of this year.
The company said:
"…supporting and developing for two separate grids has been a challenge for us, and has slowed progress on improvements that benefit all Residents. To help us focus our resources and development on the Main Grid, we have made the difficult decision to close Teen Second Life."
Linden Lab has lowered the age for Second Life membership to 16 years and is evaluating lowering it further to 13 years — but only if it can develop ways to provide safe access for younger teens.
SharesPost estimates the value of private firms based on shares bought and sold in private markets.
– Facebook has a value of about $25.5 billion;
– Zynga is valued at $4.9 billion;
– Twitter at $2.2 billion;
– LinkedIn at about $2 billion.
[Editor’s Note: Tom cross-posted this to Silicon Valley Watcher. –mrh]
Since you’re here …
… We’d like to tell you about our mission and how you can help us fulfill it. SiliconANGLE Media Inc.’s business model is based on the intrinsic value of the content, not advertising. Unlike many online publications, we don’t have a paywall or run banner advertising, because we want to keep our journalism open, without influence or the need to chase traffic.The journalism, reporting and commentary on SiliconANGLE — along with live, unscripted video from our Silicon Valley studio and globe-trotting video teams at theCUBE — take a lot of hard work, time and money. Keeping the quality high requires the support of sponsors who are aligned with our vision of ad-free journalism content.
If you like the reporting, video interviews and other ad-free content here, please take a moment to check out a sample of the video content supported by our sponsors, tweet your support, and keep coming back to SiliconANGLE.
