The World Economic Forum has announced its list of 31 Technology Pioneers for 2011. The Technology Pioneers are its list of up-and-coming startups. Last year’s list included Twitter, Playfish, and Boston Power. The year before, Mint, Etsy, and Brightcove were named.
Joining the pantheon this year are foursquare, Knewton, Layar, Scribd, and Spotify. However, greentech is equally strong on the list, particularly with smartgrid companies such as OPower and Tendril. Below is the full list of infotech companies that made it, with links to their Crunchbase profiles for more information: → Read More
StockTwits has built a business out of people tweeting their thoughts and actions around various public stocks. SecondMarket has built a business out of people interested in the buying and selling of various private stocks. It seems only natural to shove the two together. Which is exactly what they’re doing today with a new partnership.
As you may be aware, to send a tweet to StockTwits, you have to append the “$SYMBOL” syntax to your tweet. The same idea will now work with these private stocks that SecondMarket tracks. For example, if you’re interested in TechCrunch stock, you’d tweet your thoughts with “$TCRH” appended on to the tweet. For Facebook, you’d use “$FBOOK“. For Twitter, “$TWIT“. And so on. → Read More
If Facebook were a publicly traded company, its market value would rival Yahoo’s and be ten times bigger than AOL’s, if demand for its private shares are any indication. Shares of Facebook on private-company stock market SecondMarket are going through the roof right now. This week, Facebook shares traded on SecondMarket passed $50, giving Facebook a total market value of $25 billion, according to sources with access to the market. (SecondMarket itself does not disclose pricing or valuation of the private stocks it trades). In comparison, Yahoo’s market cap on the publicly traded stock market is currently $21 billion, while AOL’s is $2.3 billion.
These aren’t apples-to-apples comparisons because SecondMarket is a private stock market with thinly traded shares where demand often outstrips supply. (By definition, private stock sales trade in an illiquid market). But it is a real market with buyers and sellers, and right now that market is putting a $25 billion value on Facebook. The last time we checked in on how Facebook’s shares were doing on SecondMarket was in January, 2010 when the company was valued at $14 billion (which was up from $11 billion the month before). → Read More
Facebook, Twitter, and other places people gather, socialize and share, have turned out to be ideal app platforms. At TechCrunch Disrupt, we’re taking this trend offline. Disrupt is our media and technology conference starting tomorrow. Check out our amazing agenda. And yes, we will sell tickets at the door. Disrupt-as-platform started yesterday with our developer-packed Hack Day and Scrapyard Challenge, whose winners—including a team that built an app to play Super Mario Brothers by blinking—will be returning to Disrupt to demo to the 1,500-strong (and still growing) crowd on Wednesday.
Disrupt will continue as a platform tomorrow during the show, with a load of interactive apps and experiences designed to engage our guests—from apps to help the audience vote for the best startups onstage and in the Startup Alley to geo-mobile games based that can only be played by attendees . I’m going to call out the sponsors specifically who’ve thrown a lot of energy, talent and moolah at making Disrupt their platform. → Read More
Facebook shares just keep going up on SecondMarket, a platform for buying and selling private company stock. Sales are now being closed at $50/share, we’ve heard from a source (and we’ve confirmed that the best asking price is also $50/share). That values Facebook at around $22.5 billion.
That’s a 100% increase since January, just a couple of months ago.
Part of the quick increase may be due to tightening supply. Current Facebook employees are no longer allowed to sell stock, we’ve heard but have not confirmed, due to possible securities laws violations. If that’s accurate, and it makes sense, it can partially explain the bubble like price increase in Facebook stock. → Read More
Transactions of private-company stock on SecondMarket nearly doubled in March, rising to $70 million from $43.8 million in February. It is the highest amount that has ever been traded on SecondMarket. The stats are in its March report, which you can download here.
A full 41% of the transactions were sales of Facebook stock, compared to 48% in January. We’ve reported that these sales are being completed for as high as $40 per share (or a $17.6 billion valuation). Despite the demand, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg does not appear to be in any rush to take the company public. → Read More
In January, private company stock marketplace SecondMarket published data on private company stock sales that they helped complete in 2009. And February’s report showed the transactions that took place in January, which showed a strong demand for consumer products and services startups. The majority of transactions in January were sales of Facebook stock. SecondMarket just released its February report, which you can download here.
Transactions more tripled in February, from $13 million in sales to $43.8 million in sales last month. A full 48% of the transactions were sales of Facebook stock, compared to 38% in January. And last month, we reported that sales are being completed for as high as $40 per share (or a $17.6 billion valuation). But we learned this week that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is in no rush to take the company public. LinkedIn took 18% of the transactions, and sales of both Twitter and Zynga stock were each 15% of the total. LifeLock rounded the group out with 4% of the total. → Read More
Last month SecondMarket published data on private company stock sales that they helped complete in 2009. They’ve now released last month’s data as well.
A total of a little more than $13 million in sales occurred, with the average transaction size of around $2 million. There continues to be very strong demand for consumer products and services startups (which includes companies like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Digg, etc.). But the sellers are spread out more evenly across all categories, particularly consumer, IT, Healthcare, energy and cleantech.
36% of the transactions were sales of Facebook stock, and we’ve heard from independent sources that sales are being completed for as high as $40 per share (or a $17.6 billion valuation). That’s a substantial price increase from less than a month ago. Tesla took 29% of the transactions, and sales of Solyndra stock were 28% of the total. Gridpoint rounded the group out with 7% of the total. → Read More
SecondMarket opened up its private company stock marketplace in early 2009 and gave employees at hot startups something they never had before – an organized place to sell their stock even before the company went public or was acquired. For the first time the company is releasing information on private company buy/sell demand and completed transactions.
Most companies don’t like SecondMarket one bit, at least at first blush. Companies don’t want random outsiders holding their stock before they’re public. And they don’t like some employees having liquidity events before others, it tends to screw around with morale. And there are also legal and tax issues. Stock options must be priced at “fair market value” or both the employee and company face tax consequences. The board of directors usually sets the common stock price at a fraction of the preferred price. But when there are verified third party purchases on places like SecondMarket, the companies have to use those sales as a guide. The result is higher priced options for all employees.
But we’ve seen a big evolution in startup stock dynamics over the last year. Companies like Facebook and Zynga have created controlled secondary markets for their employees to sell stock, generally at around 65% of the preferred price. Yelp seems to be doing the same. Giving employees a way to “take some money off the table” isn’t such a bad thing after all. Think of it as releasing some of the steam in the pressure cooker.
So about that data. → Read More
Offers to buy Facebook common stock have surged to $32 per share on SecondMarket, a marketplace for the buying and selling of private company stock. That offer values Facebook at roughly $14 billion.
The last time we checked in, in December 2009, private sales were occurring at $25 per share, or a $11 billion valuation.
This new $32/share bid price doesn’t represent an actual sale, though. There are currently 20,000 shares of common stock for sale with an asking price of $40 per share (or a $17.6 billion valuation). But it does show that someone out there is willing to buy those 20,000 shares for $32/each. So far, the seller hasn’t bitten.
It was only a few months ago that employees and other common stockholders sold $100 million of their stock to DST at just a $6.5 billion valuation. That sale was oversubscribed and some stockholders weren’t able to sell. With the benefit of hindsight, they were the lucky ones. → Read More
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