More On Linden Lab Acquiring Caspertech

 

 If you rent a place in Second Life through someone rather than getting it directly from Linden Lab, then chances are you know of Caspertech. Their rentboxes are a fairly common sight in numerous places here, including at the Sunweaver Estates where the Newser office makes it's home. Since 2018 with the closing of Hippo Technologies, they've clearly been the top seller of rental vendors. Things seem to have run smoothly with them. So it was a big surprise yesterday when Linden Lab announced they were acquiring them. 

 

CasperTech has provided various business related services within Second Life for 13 years. Over that time, CaperTech has proudly provided continuous service for tens of thousands of Second Life businesses, and it has remained steadfast in its commitment to the merchants who have depended on those services.

This acquisition will ensure that all of the existing CasperTech services in Second Life will continue to operate without interruption into the foreseeable future, but it also opens up brand new opportunities to vastly improve the experience for our users as our next step in the CasperTech and Second Life journey.  

You can expect to see the same great services that you know and love continue on, with all of the same functionality you enjoy today, but with closer integration into the Second Life ecosystem – and as such, an even more reliable and convenient experience.

The news sparked more than a few questions and some fears among some residents, both those on the forum thread to discuss the matter, as well as conversations with people I had that day. A few were expecting Linden Lab to gouge them to the point they'd have to give up some of their land. 

Shortly afterwards, there was a special episode of Lab Gab to help explain things. In short, Caspervend is not in trouble, but the owner had other reasons to sell.
 

Caspertech is owned by Casper Warden, and he and Patch Linden were interviewed by Strawberry Linden. Casper stated he came to Second Life in 2006, was asked to by people in his real-life job to take a look at it. Worked on promotional material for the company at first. But was soon making his own items. Caspertech as a Second Life company has been around for 13 years. Casper originally created the vendor system in 2009 for his own personal use as he didn't like some of the ways what was on the market worked, "they were script-heavy, and I didn't like the way that the vendors scrolled through the products." But he soon realized people were more interested in his vendors than what he was selling, "In hindsight, I guess I shouldn't have been too surprised by that." So he soon launched version one to the public. While he didn't do an ad campaign for it, word spread by word of mouth and started becoming popular, "and we just continued to expand to meet customer needs." Casper does make other items, such as a security orb and a product update system, though his vendors continue to be his "bread and butter."

Patch called himself "a bit of a fan" about Casper's products, and had been using them not just for himself, but Linden Lab work, calling it "an awesome system." He would say the talks about Linden Lab getting Caspertech started, "a little while back now," with he and Casper talking on various subjects, and eventually came to the idea of the Lab taking the system and intigrating it with Second Life. This way, Patch stated, this would mean the long-term stability of the vendor system while under the Lab there would be more resources available to improve on it. So Patch asked him about the idea, "and well, here we are." Patch went on to say Caspertech's technology, "will bring a lot of capabilities ... in the future."

Strawberry asked what residents can expect. Casper answered that customer services will continue, "It's really critical to us that our customers don't get disrupted." He went on to say that he was still basically in charge of Caspertech's day to day operations, saying the big difference was that they now had, "the support and resources of Linden Lab behind us," reminding that other companies offering rental vendors had closed down over the years, "now our customers can be assured that their Caspertech services aren't just going to suddenly disappear." Of the future, he stated that he saw "plenty of exciting opportunities" to improve the vendor system, saying residents can expect "significant" improvements. Patch stated that in the deal, the Lab "would not interrupt or change what you know and love about the Casper products today. They will continue for the foreseeable future just as they are now. ... the goal is to ... give Second Life residents the tools they need to be successful in what they do."

Casper described himself as mainly a software engineer, and stated that as his business expended, "I found increasingly less and less time on my hands to really spend on the code," and that "many requested features have kind of sat on the back burner. ... this move give me an opportunity to really get back to what I love and what I'm good at," developing his rental vendors and other products of his. He would go on to say he'll still be online, and around in group chat, "monitoring and helping to keep everything running," and thanked his support staff, "who have already kept the show running all these years."

Patch stated they would soon start working with Casper to "transition the service" to the Lab, saying the goal was to make it smooth to the point it wouldn't be noticed by anyone. And after that, Casper would presumable have more time to work on the system's new features. 

In the forums, someone would ask Casper if he was in some kind of financial trouble, and he would answer, "No! We've been profitable since the day we launched. But the amount that one guy (me) can handle is limited, and as CT grew I found myself with a massive challenge and not enough time to improve the service. Now I can! *yay*" There were numerous other comments. Some were cautious, some were optimistic, some were a little of both, feeling the Lab wasn't out to gouge them but weren't so sure about the promised improvements. There were a few comparisons to Linden Lab's acquisition of Xstreet, which would eventually become Second Life's Marketplace. One would say this was no surprise as she felt Caspervend had gotten "too big to fail" for Second Life. 

While a major development, for now it appears little will change as far as daily life in Second Life goes. Hopefully Casper will soon come up with the improvements he says he was requested to make, but hadn't the time to develop them. For now, we can only wait and see.

Bixyl Shuftan

Elon Musk Makes A Deal To Buy Twitter

On Monday April 25, Twitter announced it had reached a deal with billionaire Elon Musk for him to purchase the company for 44 billion dollars. This was the culmination of a series of events that began on April 4 when it was revealed he had bought 9.2 percent of it's stock, making him the largest shareholder. There was speculation that he would join the executive board. But instead he stated he had no intention. Instead on April 14, he announced he was offering to buy all of Twitter's stock. The immediate reaction of the board was to adopt a "poison pill" strategy, or limit anyone from owning more than 15% of the company. But apparently negotiations went on behind the scenes, and the board agreed to Musk's offer.

In a statement announcing the deal, Musk would say, "Free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated. I also want to make Twitter better than ever by enhancing the product with new features, making the algorithms open source to increase trust, defeating the spam bots, and authenticating all humans. Twitter has tremendous potential – I look forward to working with the company and the community of users to unlock it."

With 83 million followers, Musk is already one of Twitter's most high profile users. He's also made some controversial statements. Reaction to news of the purchase had a political divide. Conservatives tended to view the buyout with optimism and cheers, many feeling Twitter has been biased against them and restricts free speech. Liberals tended to feel worry and concern, wondering if his efforts to encourage free speech might mean fewer filters against hateful rhetoric and what environmentalists consider mistruths about the climate debate.

Sources: BBC News, CNN, PR Newswire

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Microsoft Announces It's Buying Activision/Blizzard

 

In what would be the biggest computer gaming business acquisition in business history, yesterday on Tuesday January 18 Microsoft announced it was buying Activision/Blizzard. The deal would be at 68.7 billion US dollars, or about $95 a share.

“Gaming is the most dynamic and exciting category in entertainment across all platforms today and will play a key role in the development of metaverse platforms,” Microsoft Chairman and CEO Satya Nadella would state, “We’re investing deeply in world-class content, community and the cloud to usher in a new era of gaming that puts players and creators first and makes gaming safe, inclusive and accessible to all.”

Activision/Blizzard is best known for the well-known MMORPG World of Warcraft. But has also been successful in games such as Overwatch, Hearthstone, Diablo, Starcraft, and Call of Duty.

Microsoft had already been a company heavily invested in gaming such as with it's X-Box and having acquired the popular Minecraft some years ago. The deal would make it the third largest gaming company. It is notable that while Minecraft's maker Majong was acquired while both the game and company were doing well, in recent months Activision/Blizzard has suffered a series of blows, most notably a rash of sexual harassment allegations. It's stocks have sunk more than 37% since it's high last year. Activision/Blizzard's CEO Robert Kotick would continue for now, though is expected to step down once the deal closes, which may take as long as a year and a half to complete.

Sources: Microsoft, Reuters, The Verge

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Linden Lab's Buyout Now Official, Second Life Listed As Part Of Waterfield Network

 
Almost unnoticed at the end of Linden Lab's announcement that the move of Second Life's data to Cloud servers was now complete was an announcement of another kind. When the Lab announced the agreement with a group of investors to be acquired in July, it was mentioned the deal required the approval of the US Government. At the end of Tuesday's announcement, it was stated the approval was finally granted after a review. The big reason for the approval was Linden Lab's money service Tilia.

 Another noteworthy development for the new year is that Linden Lab has new owners! As announced in mid-2020, an investment group led by Randy Waterfield and Brad Oberwager signed an agreement to acquire the company subject to regulatory approval by financial regulators in the U.S. related to Tilia Inc.’s status as a licensed money transmitter as well as other customary closing conditions. We are pleased to share that the regulatory review has been completed and Linden Lab is now under new ownership.  

On the Waterfield Holdings webpage, Second Life was listed as part of the Waterfield Network, alongside other companies such as Goldman Sachs.

And what does this mean for Second Life and it's residents? For now, not much. It was earlier stated that the investors plans were to pretty much let Linden Lab continue to run Second Life as they see fit. In this latest announcement, they hinted the investors would be sending over some money.

While the owners may be new, things are “business as usual” in Second Life. Last year saw strong growth for our virtual world and, as a result of this acquisition we expect even more resources in 2021 to further improve and grow Second Life in the future.  

Hamlet Au in New World Notes would have a few things to say on the topic. Among them, that over time Waterfield would likely send the Lab some directives over time to keep it's profit margin. This likely includes higher fees and more incentives to go Premium.

Hat Tip: Hamlet Au

Bixyl Shuftan

A New Computer

It's probably as inevitable as death and taxes to any Second Life user. Eventually your computer is no longer able to handle going about the Grid as well as it used to, or it breaks beyond repair. So this means getting a new machine. Yours truly just had to make this decision for the third time recently. So what happened and what computer is now being used to update the Newser?

Read the story in Extra.

Maxwell Graf of Rustica Asks For Help Due to Real Life Eviction

by Bixyl Shuftan

Maxwell Graf, best known for being a content creator and his well-designed sim Rustica is in trouble. A few days ago, he sent a plea for help, saying the house he and his wife were supposed to spend their retirement in will soon be lost due to a falling out with the wife's family, "We have to vacate ... This is terrifying. We have no savings, we have to credit cards to run up. Even in a best case scenario, we can only afford a small two-bedroom apartment ... What I want is a safe place for Cheryl and my dogs to sleep at night. Nothing else matters. I am not the kind of person who wants a handout ... What I am asking is that you take a visit to my sim (Rustica) and purchase an item or two, or visit my admittedly small marketplace store and find something there. If you want something but it costs too much, IM me and I will send it to you for whatever you do have. ... Every single item will make a very real difference in this crazy transition, and I honestly have never needed your help and support more in my life."

I got in contact with Maxwell, and we talked about his situation. He didn't have anything to add about his real-life situation other than "my schedule is absolutely messed up crazy right now, and going to go dark here at any time due to the move." But not everything was going bad, "I can say this.I have never before experienced the kind of love and caring and support that I have seen from so many people for Cheryl and I. In the middle of those closest to us, the siblings who are doing this to us, we have had an army of people we only know through 'virtual reality' do the most amazing things for us.  It's such a strange dichotomy. I mean, people I have never even heard of sending me five or ten dollars to my Paypal somehow (I did not give it out), and randomly sending me lindens. People offering to let us stay with them, people offering to come help us pack. It's just amazing and I've been crying a lot.(smile).

"There IS love and kindness in the world, beyond what I have ever known. I have always had a hard time asking for help, so I am just a pile of mush lately with the outpouring we have had from the SL community. ... amazing people. Never believe that this place is just a bunch of sex addicts or trolls or fashionistas, like they would have us believe. I know you never felt that way and I have not either, but this goes beyond what I have ever experienced. So much love from people."

For anyone wishing to help out, head over to the Rustica sim, Rustica (130/116/58), to purchase an item, or do so at Rustica's Marketplace page.

Source: Prim Perfect

Bixyl Shuftan

BREAKING NEWS: Donald Trump Buys Linden Lab, Promises to "Make Second Life Great Again"

Update: April Fool's

In a move that was completely unexpected, Linden Lab announced that it had been purchased by the Trump Organization, the primary holding company for the businesses and investments by Donald Trump, the billionaire and media personality whom recently has been making news as a leading candidate in the US Presidential election later this year.

"We at Linden Lab are happy to announce our merger with the Trump Organization," Ebbe Altberg, the CEO of the owner of the virtual world announced, "Our new partnership will allow us to make developments in virtual reality like never before."

In an official statement by Donald Trump, he stated he had been impressed by past accomplish- ments by enterpenurers in the virtual world, such as Anshe Chung. and was looking forward to attracting new ones. It had also gotten his attention that among the users in the Gird were supporters of his, such as those in Second Life's own Trump Organization, and planned on making an appearance inworld soon, "Second Life is full of all kinds of people, smart people, socially upward, socially awkward, I love the socially awkward."

Developments are still coming in on what is clearly a turning point in both Linden Lab and Second Life.

For more information: Click Here.

Man Buys Google.com For $12, Rewarded by Company

This Internet news story is several weeks old, but still worth talking about. It seems Google briefly lost the ownership of it's Internet domain name to a man in India, albeit for just a minute.

"I was learning more about the Google Domains interface," Sanmay Ved of Mandivi India would write in LinkedIn, "and typed google.com and clicked search domains. To my surprise, Google.com was showing as available!" He then used his credit card to purchase the domain, documenting his transactions on screenshots, and his transaction was confirmed, making him the new owner of Google's web domain.

But his ownership was brief. A minute later, he received an email stating his purchase was canceled, which Google could do as they owned the registration service, unlike a similar incident with Microsoft and it's domain in the United Kingdom. Some days later, he was contacted by their security team, stating he would get a reward for finding the error. Ved requested the reward go to charity, an educational group that runs 400 schools in India, "providing free education to more than 39,200 children in the slum, tribal and rural belts where child labor and poverty are widespread." Google agreed and doubled the amount.

"I can't shake that feeling that I actually owned Google.com," he was quoted as saying.

Reprinted from "Food on the Table"

Sources: LinkedIn, Business Insider, BBC News, PCmag.com

Bixyl Shuftan

Facebook Buys Oculus Rift for Two Billion Dollars (Main Article)

By Bixyl Shuftan

On Tuesday, it was announced that Facebook had purchased Oculus Rift for two billion US dollars. “Mobile is the platform of today, and now we’re also getting ready for the platforms of tomorrow,” stated Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook's founder and CEO, “Oculus has the chance to create the most social platform ever, and change the way we work, play and communicate.”

The announcement from Facebook stated the deal was for about $400 million in cash and about 23.1 million shares of Facebook stock valued at 1.6 billion US dollars. It was also stated "The agreement also provides for an additional $300 million earn-out in cash and stock based on the achievement of certain milestones."

The news of Facebook's latest acquisition, a month after they had bought the messenger platform WhatsApp for $19 Billion, came just after it was announced that 60,000 Oculus Rift units had been sold in it's first year. Hamlet Au of New World Notes thought this news, while impressive on it's own, also suggested a greater potential demand for virtual reality headsets. As the units had sold for $350 US dollars, "it's a very solid data point suggesting there is a mass market for a cheaper consumer model." Facebook's announcement claimed the figures were more than 75,000 units.

Early on, Linden Lab showed interest in the virtual reality headset, enough to start working on integrating it with Second Life in an "unofficial capacity." Hamlet Au then called the move then an "enormous gamble," but one it should take. Now, with Oculus Rift's future being a mass market one, Hamlet felt the Lab should invest more than ever.

Facebook also has some former Lindens on it's staff.  Cory Ondrejka. Linden Lab's co-founder is the head of Facebook's mobile division. Jim Purbrick, another Facebook worker who once worked at the Lab, posted, "Apparently I work at a virtual worlds company again."

Reaction appears to be mainly positive, people anticipating Facebook's large coffers able to generously fund research and development. But there have been some complaints, notably about concerns about privacy and datamining. On Oculus Rift's Kickstarter page, many posted complaints about the move: "I hate to see Oculus join facebook. Facebook is something I hate from the bottom of my heart (never joined it) .. the news totally ruined my day and I'm thinking of canceling my pre-order." The BBC reported that the creator of Minecraft, Markus  Persson, creator of popular online game Minecraft, had cancelled a deal with Oculusafter hearing the news, "We were in talks about maybe bringing a version of Minecraft to Oculus. ... I just cancelled that deal. Facebook creeps me out."

So why did Facebook buy up Oculus Rift? The social media  giant has been buying up a number of acquisitions. So perhaps it's mainly for another source of revenue. But there may be other reasons. Perhaps Mark Zuckerburg is looking to catch the next tech wave. Perhaps Facebook is trying to appeal to younger users, which have been leaving as more older people sign up. Or perhaps it is, as one man in a CNN article put it, "to hedge against the day that the era of the social network as we know it becomes totally played out?"

This is clearly big news for virtual reality and virtual worlds. The money behind the multi-billion dollar company means promises for more and faster developments. But what will be the catch?

Sources: BBC, CNN Money, CNN, Facebook , New World Notes,
Image Credit: Robyn Beck/CNN 

Bixyl Shuftan

Facebook Buys Oculus Rift for Two Billion Dollars

On Tuesday, it was announced that Facebook had purchased Oculus Rift for two billion US dollars.

Stay tuned for more details.

Sources: BBC, CNN Money, CNN  
Image Credit: Robyn Beck/CNN 

A New Computer

It was shortly before yours truly began going on Second Life on a regular basis in which he got the computer that would be used to write his stories as a reporter for JamesT Juno's SLN, and then the first few years as editor of Second Life Newser. But eventually, one needs to update their equipment, either through the old wearing out or breaking down, or there's something new that is worth the money spent. And after more than six years, it was time to get a new machine.

Read more in Extra.

Linden Labs Buys Desura

On July 10, Linden Lab announced it had acquired Desura, a digital distribution platform based in Australia. Sometimes compared to Steam, Desura is best known for focusing on small independent games, or "indie games," instead of those from the bigger companies Steam has. This continues the trend of Linden Lab buying or establishing platforms centered around user-generated content, such as Patterns, Blocksworld, and Versu.

In the Linden Lab press statement, Mark Humble stated, "Desura puts the best games, mods, and downloadable content from developers at gamers’ fingertips, ready to buy and play. The free Desura application can serve and patch games, mods, and add-ons directly for customers around the world. Developers and publishers can share news, images, videos, and other content through their profiles, while every member of the Desura community can post comments, submit reviews, and upload screenshots from their own playing experiences. Desura also demystifies user-made mods and add-ons for games by making them as easy to find and install or update as professional titles."

Desura called it's acquisition, "an important milestone in the company's history, with much more to come."

For our community of gamers, publishers, and developers, rest assured Desura shall continue running uninterrupted. Long term, expect plenty of polish as we continually strive to innovate and differentiate ourselves as we have done in the past with our Linux client, alphafunding, mod support and self-publishing for developers. We have big plans and many ideas to explore, and the resources we now have as part of Linden Lab will allow us to do just that.

Our aim remains to put great games, mods, and downloadable content at the fingertips of players - and we look forward to doing this in a greatly expanded manner and challenging ourselves to grow with the games we support.

In an open letter to its game developers, the Desura team stated, "... To date Desura has been built and run by a dedicated small team- and it's grown to the point where we list over 1,000 games and have served over 1,000,000 customers. We are very passionate about the developers and community we represent, and I want to assure you now this policy isn't changing. With Linden Lab's support, we plan on expanding our team and providing you with more co-ordinated coverage, sales, marketing efforts, reporting, and assistance from us. We want to solve challenges like discoverability and giving your customers' choice, and we look forward to doing so. We are going to continue to polish and innovate so Desura stands out and does its most important job better: getting your game into customers' hands. ..."

There have been a few opinions about the matter, and considering it's earlier moves some wondered if this was another move to "throw enough things at the wall and hope something sticks." In the SL Universe forums, a couple people expressed worry that Linden Lab would just "gut" Desura of it's technology and then close it down like when it acquired "Avatars United."

Iris Ophelia expressed the opinion that Desura was different from Linden Lab's earlier moves, "At points, it seined like they were snapping up promising creative gaming projects and hoping that one might magically blossom into the next Minecraft. But they've yet to demonstrate the follow-through that would be necessary to make that happen." They neither had a community of fans nor did the Lab did anything to nurture one. "But Desura is very different. If we're talking about Linden Lab buying up projects to see what will stick, Desura's already well into the process of sticking, if not already 'stuck.''

Iris called Desura, "Steam for Indie games … if you're big on indie games, you're probably big on Desura." And indie games were what Iris called "a big f**king deal. In the past few years, some of the most memorable games have been indies that seemingly came out of nowhere. … this segment of game development is big and only getting bigger. Desura appeared at the perfect time to take advantage of this, making an array of publishing and vending tools available to just about anyone with a game they wanted to sell."

Linden Lab made what could be a brilliant move, Iris felt. Provided the Lab can help keep it's momentum and help fix what problems it has, this could easily be it's best purchase, "I'm not worried about Desura 'sticking,' so long as Linden Lab sticks with Desura."

Most responding to Iris's article expressed optimism, though there was one person asking, "What does this have to do with Second Life?"

So it seems Linden Lab, for once, made the right move at the right place at the right time. But will they continue to avoid blunders with their new acquisition?

Bixyl Shuftan

Sources: Linden Lab, Desura, Wikipedia, New World Notes, Business Wire,  Techcrunch

Linden Lab Buys "Blocksworld" IPad Game

Last week on January 24, Linden Lab announced they had purchased the iPad game "Blocksworld." Described on it's own website as a "mix of Lego and Minecraft," the Linden press release described it as an iPad game in which players use cubes, wedges, rockets, wheels, motors, and more to easily create 3D models of anything they can imagine - from race cars to animals to robots and more. These models come alive with realistic physics simulation, and users can play, interact, or even explode their creations. As with Linden Lab's Creatorverse, Blocksworld allows users to share their creations with others to explore, play with, and remix to make their own.

CEO Rod Humble was quoted in the statement, "Blocksworld is a great fit with what we do at Linden Lab. It's a very user-friendly complement to our portfolio of shared creative spaces, We're happy to have the Blocksworld team join Linden Lab and are looking forward to bringing Blocksworld to the App Store worldwide soon!"
Boldai, the team behind the game, is based in Sweden. On the website, they stated Blocksworld was developed at the University of Linkoping.

It's notable that in their press release, Linden Lab called itself not just "the makers of Second Life," but "the makers of Second Life, Creatorverse, Patterns, and other shared creative spaces." Some established residents of the Grid, already feeling the Lindens are leaving them behind, might consider this statement further evidence that they are.



Hamlet Au in New World Notes suggested that the purchase was motivated by predictions of tablets outselling desktop computers within two years. Ciaran Laval on her blog felt Rod Humble was continuing to move Linden Lab forward, expanding it and making it known for more than just Second Life.

For the complete Linden Lab statement: Click Here. 



Hat tip: Xymbers Slade, images from blocksworld.com

Bixyl Shuftan