No, this isn't an April Fool's gag, before you ask. Philip Rosedale, founder and visionary of Linden Lab is stepping down as CEO and becoming board chairman as soon as a replacement can be found. Kapor, the current chairman and Linden Lab's largest investor will remain on Linden Lab's board of directors.
"It was not precipitated by a crisis," said current chairman Kapor, speaking to Reuters today. "We had always anticipated that there would be a time when he'd decide he no longer wanted to be a CEO."
We don't know about you, but we don't think that CEO is really where Rosedale wanted to be in the long run. Rosedale will remain on board at Linden Lab working on strategy and product development.
Update: Rosedale has put up a post on the Linden Lab blog, outlining the reasons for his departure from the CEO position. Essentially, Mr. Rosedale believes that the CEO position will increasingly be geared towards growing the Linden company. His best way of contributing, as he sees it, is from the sidelines offering vision for the future.[via Reuters]