VIDEO: Second Market Outbid In U.S. Marshals Bitcoin Auction

Second Market to Create A Stand Alone Bitcoin Exchange

From the perspective of Mr. Silbert and his peers, Facebook’s success in trading on those exchanges represents a new era in capital formation, where companies will stay private longer and shareholders will not wait for an I.P.O. to take money off the table. While no private Internet company can fill the hole Facebook will soon leave, the exchanges hope a deluge of smaller companies will eventually fill the gap. Mr. Silbert has also moved to transform SecondMarket — which also facilitates trading in other assets like bankruptcy claims — into a more mature exchange. It recently required companies that wanted to sell shares to submit financial information, including audited financial information and capitalization tables, for prospective investors. Mr. Silbert said the extra layer of transparency would be a great standard for the post-Facebook era, since it would help buyers feel more confident in their trades. The company says it has conducted transactions for 45 companies and is qualifying 200 additional companies.

PIMCO boss Mohamed El-Erian was interviewed over at Reuters HQ this morning, as part of a public Newsmakers series. I’m not there, but was interested in a recent report that PIMCO shares were trading on SecondMarket. So I put the question up on Twitter, and Reuters blogger Felix Salmon picked up my slack. El-Erian acknowledged that such shares are indeed trading – he called it “shadow equity -- but only PIMCO employees are allowed to buy and/or sell (he’s a buyer, natch). Interesting new use for the platform…