IBM to give birth to 'Second Life' business group

IBM will launch an official group in January to deal with Second Life and other virtual realms from which the company hopes to profit.

Virtual reality and other visual interface work is the next project on IBM's plate, Irving Wladawsky-Berger said in an interview at CNET's Second Life offices. Wladawsky-Berger, vice president of technical strategy and innovation at IBM, led the company's response to earlier technologies that rewrote the rules of the computing industry, such as e-commerce and Linux.

"I have been playing a strong role in helping us start our 3D Internet and virtual-world efforts. We are launching a new EBO in this area in January--that is, an emerging business opportunity--much like we did with Linux and the grid," Wladawsky-Berger said Tuesday. IBM believes the virtual realm has potential for training, conferences and commerce, he said.

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Google unveils unorthodox stock option auction

Google plans to start an unorthodox stock options program in April that will allow employees to sell their vested options in an online auction, the search giant announced late Tuesday.

Traditionally, employees have two ways to deal with stock options: exercise (take ownership) of them once they have "vested" and sell them at the current trading price, and pay back the company for their so-called strike price (that's typically the trading price the day the options were granted), or hold on to them after exercising them.

This new, Transferable Stock Option program gives nonexecutive Google employees a third option: a secondary market of sorts managed by Morgan Stanley where preapproved financial institutions can bid on vested options. It doesn't apply to options granted prior to the search giant's initial public offering.

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