First-order effects

• Zynga employees and early investors holding vested private shares lose their main liquid exit channel, since SecondMarket was the primary venue where pre-IPO social-gaming stock actually changed hands.
• SecondMarket loses one of the most sought-after names on its platform at a moment when demand for hot consumer-internet private shares is high — supply, not buyer appetite, becomes its constraint.

Second-order effects

• Other late-stage startups watching Facebook and Zynga now have a template for gating their own stock, shifting the negotiation from "can employees sell?" to "on what terms does the company permit it?"
• Buyers in remaining secondary transactions will price in transfer risk — demanding discounts or company sign-off rights upfront — which raises the effective cost of private-market liquidity for every issuer that stays permissive.

Third-order effects

• If issuers keep asserting veto power over their own shares, platforms like SecondMarket drift from open marketplaces toward permissioned channels dependent on issuer cooperation, weakening the case for a free-standing pre-IPO market.
• The pattern builds the record of opacity and inconsistent treatment of holders that historically draws securities regulators' attention once a company nears public listing — the exact friction point between private control and shareholder liquidity this episode crystallizes.