In a press release on Thursday, Linden Lab announced the expected acquisition of itself by an as-of-yet unnamed investment group. There’s only one obstacle in the way, Tilia.
Tilia inc is Linden Lab’s fairly recent addition, a company that deals with the financial side of things for the parent company. Most notably, for Second Life users, it handles the transaction of L$. But it also handles monetization models for a number of games and other virtual worlds.
Because of this, Linden Lab is not allowed to just sell the company off wholesale, without regulation. The US financial regulators need to ensure everything is above board before the investment group takes ownership.
Though the investment group is unnamed, the investors are not. The two main players are Brad Oberwager, mostly known for his brand Bare Snacks, who has a long record of investing in and coaching technology start-ups, and Randy Waterfield of the Waterfield Group, which started as a mortgage lender during the Great Depression and has since evolved over 2 generations to become more focused on technology.
Though nothing has been stated as of yet, there is no reason to believe this new leadership will change anything for Second Life. With Waterfield and Oberwager’s backgrounds, it would seem they will focus more on Tilia than Second Life.