Linden Lab lands Kingdon: new CEO
Filed under: MMO industry, News items, Second Life, Virtual worlds
In the last couple of years, Linden Lab has grown from around 50 people to (we are told) around 250 people. It is a growth stage of companies that most do not survive, as usually they do something lethally boneheaded in the process.
Another stage that many companies do not survive is their first change of CEO. It is a massive change for the company's table of organization, reporting chains and corporate culture. The first CEO change generally sees a large staff turnover.
That's what usually happens, anyway. While we're not predicting sudden death for Linden Lab, they're getting their first new CEO today.
Philip Rosedale moves up to board Chairman, replacing Mitch Kapor (whose title we don't know when the music stops), and Philip is in turn replaced by new CEO, Mark Kingdon, late of Organic Inc.
If you look at Organic's website you'd be hard pressed for the first minute or so to figure out what it is they actually do. They're one of those "You already know who they are, or you don't" shops. They're essentially an online marketing agency.
Prior to that, Kingdon was a partner in the consulting division of PricewaterhouseCoopers, one of the 'Big Four' international accountancy and professional services firms.
We're frankly amazed that anyone was picked so quickly. CEO at Linden Lab is probably the second-worst job at the company (we'd pick the abuse team for the worst position).
Linden Lab had their announcing chain in order, notifying Reuters first (perhaps as early as yesterday), company employees next (in a meeting at 2PM US Pacific time today), the general press just after 3PM US Pacific, and Second Life users at 3:30PM.
Kingdon starts full-time with Linden Lab on 15 May, and his avatar will be 'M Linden', effectively making it awkward to find him in Second Life's built-in search system.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
4-23-2008 @ 1:51AM
Jacek Antonelli said...
"effectively making it awkward to find him in Second Life's built-in search system."
(Background: SL search requires search terms to be 2 characters or more, or they are ignored.)
Amusingly, that was my first thought on hearing the name. But I guess it makes sense that you can't find M... seeing as how he's leader of a top-secret British government agency.
*walks halfway across a white screen, turns and fires her watermelon launcher, then hums catchy music as pink goo drips down the screen*
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4-23-2008 @ 6:03AM
skribe said...
There's actually been a rumour floating around for a while that the new CEO has been in charge since Phillip stepped down. The rumour goes on to say that the new CEO would take them to an IPO.
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4-23-2008 @ 6:06AM
skribe said...
and soon.
4-23-2008 @ 6:30AM
Tateru Nino said...
Well, Kingdon would be just about the ideal CEO for LL to do it. However if they had pretty much everything within the company ready for an IPO, it would likely be 18 months from now.
They really take a long time, and most of that period it is publicly visible.
The problem is that an IPO doesn't make sense for Linden Lab. IPOs don't make sense for every kind of company -- one of Kingdon's previous posts (PricewaterhouseCoopers) is a gigantic _private_ company. They never did it themselves - it didn't make sense for them.
Rumors about a Linden Lab IPO have been going around since 2003 or so. I'm not sure that they're any more credible today than they were then, though.
"It seems like about the dumbest move they could make", to quote an old boss of mine.
4-23-2008 @ 7:03AM
skribe said...
Personally, I agree with your old boss. However, I know some very well-credentialed people that have loads of experience with this sort of thing hold the rumour to be credible and, two in particular consider it likely. That said, even the most-experienced people make mistakes as demonstrated at: http://www.bvp.com/Portfolio/AntiPortfolio.aspx
=)
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4-23-2008 @ 7:08AM
Tateru Nino said...
I have to wonder what Linden Lab would gain from an IPO that they don't already have.
4-23-2008 @ 8:23AM
skribe said...
LL or the VCs? Remember Phillip's conversion to chairman happened within hours of Gartner's 'SL is bad for business' article. Probably coincidence but if the VCs have lost faith they maybe looking for a new direction or just to cash out. Pure speculation on my part btw. Better, and prettier, heads than mine will doubtless put me straight =).
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4-23-2008 @ 9:34AM
sirhc DeSantis said...
I really can't see an IPO on the horizon - too much possible competition on the horizon. Would you buy in just as other, possibly more popular, virtual worlds were starting to appear? With the probable mass migtarion of current premium residents?
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4-23-2008 @ 12:04PM
skribe said...
That maybe a reason to do it now. The VCs may have lost faith in the future profitability and want to cash out while SL is on top, or an external threat (ie credit crunch) may have forced their hand. There are reasons to IPO asap and just because they're not in the best interests of LL doesn't mean they're not in the best interests of the investors. Just sayin'.
4-23-2008 @ 6:33PM
Natas said...
Hopefully he shuts down secondlife. SL=glorified social network, not a mmo.
~
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4-24-2008 @ 2:42AM
hkmogame04 said...
hi ,my name is lingling
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4-24-2008 @ 8:39AM
Patchouli Woollahra said...
The frustration of servicing debt from external sources that don't necessarily have the continued existence of the metaverse as a first interest?
The danger of being bought out by another developer with the right finanical alliances?
/Oh, you meant 'benefits to be gained', right? xD
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4-24-2008 @ 4:39PM
Corman said...
Here's what seems interesting about Kingdon's recent experience to me:
At Organic he took over as CEO, a post formerly held by the company's founder, after the dot com bust when the company was at a low ebb. And Organic was in better condition on the day he left than it was on the day he arrived.
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