So the other shoe has dropped on Second Life: the once-hyped and then much-maligned virtual world company is losing its creator, founder and CEO Philip Rosedale. He will remain involved with the company full time as chairman of the board, he said in a blog posting.

The company is looking for a new CEO, and Rosedale makes the pitch for a more seasoned business professional: “As we grow, the role of our CEO will increasingly be to hire and grow the right team - to lead and help the company scale - to thousands of people and tens of millions of users of Second Life…I bet this will be the most interesting job opening in the technology world.”

Reuters: Mitch Kapor, investors and board member said that the management change is not a prelude to a sale of the company or an IPO, though he acknowledged that an IPO was an option under consideration.