What do you think of private companies charging for people to sell their shares?
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Facebook is charging employees $2,500 for selling private stock, Zynga charging $6,000 - Oct. 15, 2010
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Maybe someone from Facebok or Zynga can tell us a bit about how they came to these prices and how these were communicated.
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Whatever may be the base for arriving these prices, the motto behind it must be understood. May be companies want employees to retain the shares rather than going after money. As Dan said earlier financial education, like potential value of stock, to the employees is very necessary.
When I first read about this, it seemed like the fees seemed pretty high. I also found myself wondering who actually brokers the sales to the private sector. What I found was that SharesPost–Second Market Holdings may be handling the sales and purchases of unregistered securities and may be charging a 3-6% fee transaction. The legal opinion charge is $2500. Take into consideration that there needs to be record keeping and controls for secondary sales in the private market to ensure that the 500 shareholder threshold is not breached. If my assessment is correct, I add the stock administrative charges, ongoing record keeping, selling commission and the compliance reporting, then the fees may be more reasonable as they seem.
I've seen some larger private companies set up an internal market program that provides a mechanism for employees to buy and sell shares - pricing, administration, reporting, record keeping, etc. There's a cost to set it up and manage it, but from what I've seen that was paid for by the company. I don't recall any fee on shares traded, although at one company I know there was a bid-ask spread.