Back in August, information surfaced indicating that Facebook would begin allowing its employees to sell some of their shares in the company this fall. Now, a date has been set for this to begin, and that date is the 1st of November.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg sent an email to employees saying that they could sell up to 20% of their shares up to $900,000. Some think that it is something of a ruse to allow the company to buy back the shares once the employees are allowed to sell. According to ValleyWag:
Facebook’s corporate charter has a relatively unusual provision for employee stock sales. The company has a right of first refusal over employees’ shares, meaning that it has the right to match any price offered by a buyer; most companies have tighter restrictions.
Employees have been told that sales outside the program will have “career-limiting effects”; promotions, raises, and new stock-option grants may be taken away from those who sell anyway. But Facebook has no such hold on ex-employees.
$4 billion seems to be the number that everyone has Facebook valued at, but this could easily increase if enough shares go at a higher price than Facebook’s suggested $8.90 a share as VW’s Owen Thomas notes. That may very well be the case as Facebook’s popularity growth has been well documented. It’s even about to catch MySpace in the U.S., and looks set to amp up international efforts.
More details regarding the selling of stock are supposed to be released from Facebook later this month.
