Microsoft May Buy Second Life Developer
Microsoft may bail out Linden Labs if rumors are true.
Thursday brought reports that Microsoft may have silently offered to purchase Second Life developer Linden Lab.
The news follows an additional report that Linden Lab is closing its UK office on Thursday, an unsurprising move given that the studio cut 30-percent of its staff back in June. To make matters worse, CEO Mark Kingdon walked away from his position two weeks later.
But according to a current Linden Lab employee, various companies have already offered to purchase the studio, Microsoft being the latest. Purchasing Linden Lab would be an interesting move for Microsoft, as the company could integrate Second Life into Xbox Live--possibly even Games for Windows Live--to offer a service similar to Sony’s PlayStation Home virtual environment on the PlayStation 3. Games for Windows Live support would mean that current residents could still enter the virtual world, but only through the stand-alone client.
Linden Lab launched Second Life for the PC back in June 2003. Unlike current MMORPGs, the virtual world offered no quests to fulfill, no characters to level, and didn’t even offer a compelling story. Instead, it was more of a 3D social environment allowing users to create virtual goods and sell their items for real-world cash. Today Second Life is used as both a virtual advertising platform and a way of life for many entrepreneurs.
But if Microsoft were to purchase Linden Lab and take the reigns of Second Life, all that revenue could be gone, possibly converted to Microsoft Points. For now, Microsoft is refusing to comment on rumor.

Personally, i would rather grind for hours than go near second life!!
Mass exodus? You mean the 23 people that play second life will leave?
Imvu is vastly more popular. Both programs will suck the life out of any human being.
I can't speak to other worlds but I did want to give a perspective from someone who still finds it a great platform for reaching out to the world with creativity.
As for microsoft buying it, who knows. It certainly would not be a bad investment if they learned it's true potential and fostered that.
Providing a proper new user orientation, professional quality art assets for the default/starter items, and proper search and social tools and I would be shocked if it weren't a huge success.
Of course, on the other side of the coin, every attempt at an SL competitor has had limited or no user created content options, which is the biggest reason they all fail. If this purchase did happen and MS limited or removed the content creation aspects, it would be disastrous for the platform.
But yeah, I'm sure he's a very credible source. I'm sorry that you were conned, but the next time you want to write a story about a potential acquisition involving hundreds of millions or billions of dollars, it might be worth the five minutes it takes to check your source first.
Maybe we have to prepare them with some crazy spacesuit from Xbox´s marketplace.
With the economic downturn, it's not unlikely that companies start rethinking their acquisition strategy: instead of buying "ideas" with lots of media splash and high number of users, but no valid business model except burning venture capital (like, for example, Facebook... still not profitable after almost a decade but incredibly hyped on the media because of the half-a-billion free accounts that have registered), they might start to focus on profitable companies that have turned out a valid business model that gives them a regular income and nice profits every year.
Linden Lab exhausted their venture capital funding in 2003, and since 2005 at least, they're a profitable company. Every year they have profits enough to pay 4-5 times what has been invested in them. The virtual economy of Second Life is worth US$ 0.6 billion and grows every year far above the poor "real" economy. As a company and as a product, Linden Lab/Second Life is certainly "interesting" for a potential buyer who is not after big media splash but a solid business model that pours out money to its investors.
So the rumour might be true — specially the more wider rumour that Linden Lab is accepting to enter into negotiations wtith any company interested to acquire them; Microsoft would just be one of them — but we won't know for sure. If it's true, both companies will be under a NDA until due diligence is completed, and only after that each company might announce anything. Until then, there will be utter media silence — from both sides.
HTML5 and 3D direct from the browser will have a better chance at creating what Linden Labs was trying to do last decade.