Facebook Secondary Stock Just Surged To $34 — That's An $85 Billion Valuation

Monday, March 21st, 2011

MG Siegler is a general partner at CrunchFund and a columnist for TechCrunch, where he has been writing since 2009. His focus is on Apple. Prior to TechCrunch, MG covered various technology beats for VentureBeat. Originally from Ohio, MG attended the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, MI. He’s previously lived in Los Angeles where he worked in Hollywood and in... → Learn More

Just 10 days ago, we noted that Facebook had hit a new valuation record as shares on the secondary markets surged some 5 percent to $31.50 a share. That auction was through SecondMarket and put the on-paper valuation of the company at roughly $78.75 billion (based on roughly 2.5 billion shares outstanding). Today — again, just 10 days later — we have another Facebook share auction that has closed. And unbelievably, the price now is at $34 a share. That’s an even $85 billion valuation.

I repeat: $85 billion.

It was only three weeks ago that Facebook hit a massive $75 billion valuation. Again, that was through SecondMarket. Today’s new record numbers come by way of SharesPost. In a message to clients, they note that they’ve just completed the auction of 100,000 shares of Class B Common Stock at the $34 price. Those members are now being notified on how to take steps to compete the purchase.

100,000 shares at $34 is “only” $3.4 million. But still, the valuation is set at $85 billion based on this buy. The people buying today will not see any money from the stock purchase unless the stock moves beyond that massive valuation. And based on recent trends, it will do that very quickly.

The next question is apparently “when” and not “if” the stock will hit the $100 billion valuation. Crazy.

Email from SharesPost below:

Hello XXXXX,

We would like to inform you that SharesPost’s affiliated broker-dealer completed its auction of 100,000 shares of the Class B Common Stock of Facebook, Inc. on March 18th. A clearing price of $34.00 was established at the auction. Members submitting Qualifying Bids at or above the clearing price will be contacted shortly with instructions on next steps for completing this transaction.

SharesPost members who wish to be informed of and be eligible to participate in future auctions of private company securities must first be qualified by our affiliated broker-dealer as an accredited investor under the securities laws. To get qualified, please click on the green button below. We look forward to serving you at SharesPost in the future.

Company: Facebook
Website: facebook.com
Launch Date: February 1, 2004
Funding: $2.34B

Facebook is the world’s largest social network, with over 500 million users. Facebook was founded by Mark Zuckerberg in February 2004, initially as an exclusive network for Harvard students. It was a huge hit: in 2 weeks, half of the schools in the Boston area began demanding a Facebook network. Zuckerberg immediately recruited his friends Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes to help build Facebook, and within four months, Facebook added 30 more college networks. The original idea for the term...

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Company: SharesPost
Website: SharesPost.com
Launch Date: 2009

SharesPost is the next generation solution for the private capital markets. The company uses innovative technology to efficiently connect individual institutional and angels investors with high quality private investment opportunities. For more information, please visit www.sharespost.com.

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