socialmedian: Facebook's Stock Sale: Why You Should Care

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Facebook's Stock Sale: Why You Should Care

Source: readwriteweb

Jul 13, 2009

Summary

Russian investment firm Digital Sky Technologies will buy $100 million in Facebook stocks from the company's employees, Facebook announced today. Most casual Facebook users will probably look at that news and shrug. Why should we care?

The news is interesting for two reasons. First, for pure sport. In the long term, though, this could be an announcement that unleashes a wave of innovation across the web over the next few years.

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The Sport of Employee Stock Sales

Today's news is fun from a purely voyeuristic perspective. Facebook employees have twenty business days to make a decision: will they hold on to all the stock in the company they were granted when they were hired, hoping that it will become even more valuable in the future? Or will they take at least some money off the table now and gamble that they won't regret it later? Some will no doubt sell all they stock they own and leave the company.

How much confidence do Facebook employees have in the future of the company and its ability to make money? As one of the biggest employers of the Web 2.