What is the hottest stock that is not-yet-available to the seasoned, diaper-clad online ‘toddler traders’ from the Ameritrade commercials? Unsurprisingly . . . Facebook. The Palo Alto-based social networking giant is a privately held company, and its shares are not listed on the NASDAQ or the New York Stock Exchange alongside Google, Microsoft, Sun Microsystems, or any of the other publicly traded Silicon Valley behemoths – at least for now.
Yet there is a feverish private market for a piece of the action in the undisputed heavyweight champion of social media. “Facebook was most recently valued as being worth $35 billion after venture investor Accel Partners sold part of its stake in November,” wrote Nicholas Carlson of the San Francisco Examiner, on December 14. But that was before the latest private auction for 100,000 Facebook shares, held by SharesPost on December 16.
Continue reading “Facebook Shares Jump 80% in 3 Months at Private Auction”