Acquisitions and Restructuring
In May 2007, Linden Lab acquired Windward Mark Interactive, a small game development company of Waltham, Massachusetts. Windward Mark specialized in atmosphere and cloud simulation, and released their code as open source. Linden Lab currently uses the code under the name 'Windlight' to enhance atmospheric effects in Second Life.
On January 20, 2009, Linden Lab acquired XstreetSL and OnRez, two web-based marketplaces for Second Life virtual goods. Linden Lab subsequently closed OnRez and merged XstreetSL onto the secondlife.com website. XstreetSL's web forum and currency exchange service were closed. XstreetSL is formerly known as SLExchange. On September 10, 2008, the owner of SLExchange renamed the website under threat of Linden Lab enforcing a trademark on the letters "SL". XStreetSL was replaced in late 2010 with the new SecondLife Marketplace. .
On January 30, 2010, Linden Lab acquired the avatar profile service Avatars United and its creator, Enemy Unknown AB.
On June 9, 2010, Linden Lab announced a restructuring plan including a 30% reduction in workforce. The plan articulated a new renewed focus on development of browser-based 3D viewer for the Second Life Virtual World. The CEO Mark Kingdon, aka "M Linden" stepped down at this time, and the founding CEO Philip Rosedale stepped back up.
In September 2010, rumors citing unnamed "higher ups" in the Linden Lab hierarchy suggested that the company would be acquired by Microsoft.
Read more about this topic: Linden Lab