Want to Trade Shares of the Social Network (aka: Facebook)?

[MadMarketScientist 11]

This is an interesting website:

 

SharesPost.com

 

You can actually trade shares of venture backed companies which is interesting -- Facebook, Twitter, Lifelock, Zynga and so on.

 

It's basically people at these companies who have been grated shares and would like to get some cash -- before the eventual (hopeful) IPOs.

 

Clearly there is a lot you need to know to participate -- including the fact that most likely some of these go way behind the valuations they should.

 

In order to receive the listings and participate there are requirements of net worth, etc...

 

At any rate, I just find it fascinating especially in these days where you don't see as many companies able to get quickly to IPO that a secondary market like this has formed. I'm sure it will ultimately be a list of some winners and some losers.

 

MMS

[MadMarketScientist 11]

I thought this was kinda interesting -- these are the current valuations based upon what these "shares" have traded on for some known names:

 

Facebook $26.28 Billion

LinkedIn $2.07 Billion

Twitter $2.41 Billion

eHarmony $635 Million

Linden Lab $239 Million

Serious Materials $213 Million

 

If nothing else it's fun to look at the speculation.

[Tams 20]

There’s a New Way to Own a Piece of Facebook Before Its IPO

 

If you’re looking to invest in Facebook before its IPO but not privy to the secondary markets where shares of the company have been trading, there’s a new (albeit somewhat indirect) way to buy a stake.

 

The publicly traded investment fund GSV Capital announced on Monday that it has purchased 225,000 shares of Facebook at a price of $29.28 per share, which values the social network at $70 billion.

 

The investment represents about 15% of GSV’s portfolio — enough to drive up shares of GSV (which trades on NASDAQ under the symbol GSVC) by more than 30% as of midday trading on Monday.

 

GSV does not currently show any other companies in its “portfolio” on its site, but the firm also recently announced an investment in Kno, a digital textbook outfit that raised $46 million in a round led by Andreessen Horowitz last year.

 

In a statement issued today, the company says it is “presently in the final stages with a handful of private company investments that it anticipates acquiring within the next 30 days.”

 

story here

 

be careful with the last statement

;-)