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Buzz abounds on markets for trading startup shares
Portland Business Journal - by Serena Morones
According to recent reports, shares of Facebook, the ever-expanding social-networking website, are worth $26 per share.
You may ask, given the fact that Facebook is privately held, how can the stock price be determined with any certainty?
In the past, asserting the value of private shares may have been pure speculation. However, recently a small secondary market has emerged for the trading of minority shares of venture-backed companies. This new market is growing very rapidly and is grabbing the attention of business owners, investors and appraisers.
Before the recent economic decline, shareholders of companies funded by private equity sought exit value through either the market for initial public offerings or through strategic acquisition by public companies. Both methods yielded valuation data that set value expectations of owners and investors. However, since the economic decline, the IPO market has significantly dried up, leaving private equity investors wondering how, when and at what values they will receive a return on their investment.
One answer comes in the form of this new market.
Read more: Buzz abounds on markets for trading startup shares - Portland Business Journal
