So, Second Life is still here and still strong. We’re continuing to invest in its future and you’ll see the results of our commitment this year as we roll out a new mobile companion app, new Linden Home themes, performance and usability improvements, and a number of other new features and enhancements. The ability to change names will be available in the next few weeks, too.

[W]e had to say goodbye to a few employees, but at the same time we also strengthened our team by bringing back some heavy hitters who will help make Second Life better than ever.

Update, 2/13 : On its official blog, Linden Lab finally acknowledged the layoffs, claims they won't negatively impact SL, and suggests there was some recent notable hires of past Linden staff to help:

So, I’m only going to say this tonight as it’s late. We can pick up the conversation in the following days. Yes, there were layoffs today. A truly wonderful group of people. But as you can see Sansar is up and running. We are still in discussion about next steps. Including with the wonderful group of people. More to come. Don’t give up yet. Go create and have fun. Not much point in speculating until we can tell you more.

Linden Lab CEO Ebbe Altberg yesterday posted on the official Discord channel for Sansar, the company's new social platform, confirming reports ( from virtual world blogger Ryan Schultz ) of a new round of layoffs, but denying rumors that Sansar itself was closing:

Among the layoffs, I am sad to personally confirm, is Kona Gurion (Kona Linden in SL), who was a member of Linden Lab's QA team for Second Life for 16 years. I knew him even before that, during my own time as Linden Lab's embedded reporter in SL, when Kona was among Second Life's first talented, passionate early adopters. With his layoff, Linden Lab loses its last known link to Second Life during its founding, and glory days of 2006-2008.

This new round of layoffs comes only 3 months after another round of Sansar-related layoffs, when the platform was reportedly operating with just a skeleton crew.

I have reached out to Linden Lab for an official statement and will update this post when and if I get a reply.