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Stock Exchange churn continues

August 20, 2007 by 11 Comments

The near-farcical nature of the multiple stock exchanges in SL continues, with the delisting of a number of companies on the fledgling ISE (International Stock Exchange). A number of these delisted companies were refugees from the World Stock Exchange and they now state they’ll list elsewhere.

The obvious question is – why would anyone have confidence in any virtual world stock exchange or the companies listed on them, when it’s so easy to change exchanges at a whim. To be fair to the ISE, they have implemented “a policy of disclosing all CEO’s stock transactions in direct relation to their listed company”. If this is the reason that the companies have delisted, then the concern should be focused on the company side of the equation. It’s a fair expectation that shareholders know the shareholdings of a company’s CEO.

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It’s been discussed in detail all over the SL blogosphere: the current situation is a murky mess full of contradictions and conflicts of interest and it’s fair to assume the churn isn’t going to improve until some fundamental transparency measures are implemented across the board.

On a related note I received the following IM overnight:

[23:41] MouzurX Wise: (Saved Mon Aug 20 01:13:14 2007) You have been ejected from ‘World Stock Exchange’ by MouzurX Wise.

His profile claims:

“I work at WSE Customer Service, am GMG PR/IR Manager and I run an investment company in SL, Wise Financial. Also, I am the CEO of Builders Paradise – Franchise.”

Aside from no explanation about my ejection, here’s one of many examples of the conflicts of interest that abound. Can you imagine someone in RL who owned a financial services company also working for the stock exchange?

Filed Under: Business, Op-ed, Virtual Worlds Tagged With: , ,

Second Life’s financial underpinnings under threat?

August 4, 2007 by Leave a Comment

The past week has seen some significant economic turbulence from two fronts. The gambling ban, combined with the defection of multiple businesses from the World Stock Exchange (WSE) to the International Stock Exchange (ISE) has created a fair amount of uncertainty for business in SL, particularly the native businesses.

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There is some well-reasoned analysis that a recession may be on the way. Even looking at the basics makes this a reasonable proposition: less cash flowing, business uncertainty and falling land prices and the assocated consumer demand. Unless Linden Labs know something we don’t in regard to population growth, things do look a little grim. Does this pessimism extend to SL’s financial underpinnings being under threat? The gambling intervention certainly made a fundamental change to the economic foundations but the WSE / ISE / AVIX / Ginko saga isn’t likely to cause long-term ramifications as long as there some confidence from investors and businesses that at least one of the stock exchanges is a viable and transparent entity.

We’ve contacted WSE CEO LukeConnell Vandeverre multiple times during the week with no success, in order to give him the opportunity to give his views on WSE’s fortunes – something he did in detail previously. We’ll keep on trying.

(Update: an interview will appear tomorrow)

A sampling of coverage of financial goings-on in SL over the past week:

1. Mises Institute – The Coming Second Life Business Cycle

2. Your2ndPlace – Being Even-Handed About Ginko Financial’s Situation

3. Woolly Wildcat Writings – Ginko Doubles Down – Bigger Bust, or More Secure Future?

Filed Under: Business Tagged With: , ,

The wolves are out for WSE

July 30, 2007 by Leave a Comment

Over the past 24 hours reports have started appearing around companies delisting from the World Stock Exchange and moving to smaller competitor ISE. The impetus was the theft reported last week. What hasn’t helped is the current trading halt:

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We’ve had some brief IM discussions with WSE Chairman / CEO LukeConnell Vandeverre about setting up an interview in order for him to put WSE’s perspective on events. We’re hoping this will occur in the next day or so.

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We’d also like to hear from SL users with funds invested on the WSE – how concerned are you?

Filed Under: Australian News, Business, Virtual Worlds Tagged With: , ,

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