Facebook Stock Sold At $56 Billion Valuation In “Significantly Oversubscribed” Auction
Private shares market Sharespost just sold 165,000 Facebook shares for $25 each. That price implies a $56 billion valuation of Facebook. — In an email to members, Sharespost said that because the auction was …
Context & Ripple Effects
Sharespost's auction of 165,000 Facebook shares at $25 apiece cleared "significantly oversubscribed," implying a $56 billion valuation for a company with no public market — the price was set entirely by private buyers competing for scarce stock. That matters because Facebook has spent December building reasons for insiders and recruits to hold on: it closed engineering-driven buys of Hot Potato and Drop.io, reportedly plans around 15 more talent acquisitions in 2011, and topped Glassdoor's third-annual best-places-to-work list.
First-order effects
- Existing Facebook shareholders just received a liquid, market-set mark of $25 per share — a $56 billion implied valuation — with oversubscription indicating buyers were willing to pay more than this clearing price for allocation.
Second-order effects
- A higher paper value sharpens Facebook's edge in the talent war: engineers are reportedly drawn by the prospect of a blockbuster IPO payout, and rivals bidding for the same engineers now compete against richer, publicly quoted private equity marks.
Third-order effects
- If secondary auctions keep setting valuations for hot private companies, price discovery migrates from IPO day to the private markets, pressuring exchanges and regulators to formalize rules for trading shares of companies that have never listed.
The trend: Private secondary markets like Sharespost are becoming the primary venue where late-stage private companies get priced, years ahead of any public listing.