BREAKING NEWS: M Linden to "Step Down," Philip to Return

In a statement on the Linden blog, Philip Linden announced that M would be resigning his post as Chief Executive Officer of Linden Labs, and would be taking the position of "interim" CEO. Bob Komin, former Chief Financial Officer, would be promoted to Chief Operations Officer and work "side by side" with Philip.

This is a big, tough change but one the board of directors and management team deeply believes in. We owe Mark great thanks for the many things we've accomplished in these last two years -- most notably a great improvement in the stability of Second Life, and also the hiring and nurturing of a strong team of new leaders who are now ready to do some amazing work together.

Our thinking as a team is that my returning to the CEO job now can bring a product and technology focus that will help rapidly improve Second Life. We need to simplify and focus our product priorities -- concentrating all our capabilities on making Second Life easier to use and better for the core experiences that it is delivering today. I think that I can be a great help and a strong leader in that process.

It is an honor to have a chance to help more directly again, and I come to this mission with energy, excitement, and an open mind about what we need and how we need to do it. I want to see Second Life continue to grow, amaze, and change the world. It's what gets me up in the morning. Despite the challenges of such a big change, I am happy to be drafting this blog post while sitting in our San Francisco office, surrounded by the many Lindens who have made it all possible.

More to come, as soon as we all get settled and figure out how best to work together!

Details are still coming in as to yet another major news story in what has been a month full of surprises for Second Life.