how can I buy some facebook stock before it goes public?

[bluchip79]

I know that there are some banks and investment firms out there that are selling facebook stock before the ipo in the spring. I can't get any direct answers on how a simple person can go about making a purchase on some pre-ipo stock. Any ideas?

[Gregory S]

forget it, you are part of the "public", so you have to wait for the IPO

[Josh]

Unless your some rich investment jockey that facebook would want you to be investing, i would suggest that you just wait like everyone else....

[Sodabeh]

by cart

[JoeyV]

There are companies out there like secondmarket.com that will sell you Facebook stock before it goes public. I don't know what you mean by a "simple person" but you have to be a qualified individual to do it - you should have an investment portfolio of many millions before they will want to deal with you and you are not buying $5000 worth of stock from them either.

There are a bunch of other ways too now that we know FB is going public if you have enough money. Call up one of the underwriters and tell them you want to buy some derivative on the company market cap and if you have enough money, they will price it for you.

In general though, you have to wait like everyone else. In the meantime, maybe you can explain to me how Facebook plans tomake any significant money. The market somehow seems to think FB is worth as much as McD's. I can tell you pretty much exactly how McD's is going to make money. FB doesn't make any money and doesn't seem to have particular plans to make money except:

a) FB owns lots of personal data that can be used for targeted advertising. Somehow the notion is that this advertising is very valuable. Except nobody looks at advertising on FB ever and if FB gets overwhelmed with advertising people will switch to a cleaner site.

b) They'll make a search engine and compete with Google. Maybe they will make a hamburger chain and compete with McDonald's too. MSFT couldn't do it but maybe Zuckerberg can? Huh?

c) They will expand their market by reaching out to all the people who aren't yet on FB. So either, you don't want to deal with Facebook or you don't have a computer. If you don't have a computer yet because you live as a goat herder in Sudan, are your eyes especially valuable to FB? Targeted advertising of goat bells maybe.

Here's a secret - Facebook doesn'tr have a product or a way of making money. That means paying big bucks for FB is pretty silly.

Edit: A nobody hasn't the faintest clue. I mean not the barest indication of a hint of a wisp of a clue. Of course there is such a thing as a pre-IPO stock. Companies give them to employees all the time. Even companies that have no real plans or timetable for an IPO give stock to employees. It represents a presumably valuable stake in the business. When the IPO happens the employee stock is generally registered and is identical to the stock being sold at the IPO. Sometimes there are lock-ups (you would have to read the S-1 to find that out for FB but I haven't heard of any so I doubt there is one). Of course, there are companies like secondmarket that buy these employee stocks and sell them and are not doing anything illegal as long as they sell to qualified investors. A Nobody is jus a silly retail investor who listens to his broker tell him what the law is. Why would anybody think that there is no such thing as pre-IPO stock? I've organized S-Corps that had three members and total funding of $25K that had "pre-IPO stock". Duh.

I'm getting kind of sick of this site in which there are a few people like underexposed and PrivateBanker who know something and then a ton of people who don't know anything that answer all the time...

Edit: A nobody says that it is not considered pre-IPO stock because, uh, why? That's just silly. And as for you having more experince than me - I'll bet on whatever measure you choose to name. Any measure. Knowing more about it than me- name the contest and I'll play....

[A Nobody]

You CAN NOT as a member of the general public buy a stock that is not yet available to the general public. You must wait for the Initial Public Offering (IPO)
There is no such thing as pre-IPO stock, regardless of what you think

The banks and investments that you think are selling a stock before the IPO may be selling private shares but they are NOT selling stock that will be made public.. They are taking indications but they are not and can not by law trade these shares.

When an IPO is issued, the underwriter will allocate stock to the selling syndicate to further sell to the general public. The selling syndicate are those broker/dealers that agree to hold[ the underwriter sell the new issue. They are also prepared to take down (participate) in a new issue regardless is it is a "hot" issue or a bad deal.

Those customers of syndicate members who have either substantial size accounts or do heavy trading volume or those customers who have shown that they will hold new issues until the syndicate is closed will be the ones who will be offered the new issue
So unless you meet any of these criteria, you chances of participating in the new issue are slim to none.


Follow up to JOEYV’s comments. I’ve been in the industry for over 40+ years. I have been involved with underwritings in both equities and fixed incomes for many years. The stock issued to employees is NOT considered “pre IPO”, it is usually lettered stock issued not only to employees but to professional service groups that provide support to the company. The market for such stock is very limited and it does NOT address the question asked here.

I am not a silly investor, I do not have a broker, but I do know the rules & regulations since I spent time writing some of the major rules that still part of the ACT of 34. I’ve been a member of selling groups and have participated in large syndications as defined by the ACT of 33, I’ve been member of exchanges, managed member firms including floor trading operations on several floors both in the US and in Europe.
Don’t jump on someone you know nothing about, especially with your limited experience, I have hired and fired people like you. Needless to say, I was not impressed with you silly rant that proves nothing except that you can not accept people that may have more experience and a better understanding of the industry than you,

[zuma]

Buy the IPO....300 million users, has value...

http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/201...-and-bono/

"Bono,...owns 1.5 percent of the shares in Facebook via an investment firm he works through. Whenever Facebook shares start trading on the stock exchange, those stocks are expected to be worth a little less than $1 billion. He’ll surpass Sir Paul McCartney to become the richest rockstar in the world (I hesitate to say “richest musician” because there are other genres than rock ‘n roll out there). ".... http://www.webpronews.com/facebook-ipo-w...xy-2012-02