[smanek]

The SEC requires private companies that have more than 500 shareholders to file basically the same paperwork/disclosures that a public company has to. FB is probably nearing (or over) the 500 shareholder limit.

Since they are going to go through most of the downside involved with an IPO anyways, they might as well get some cash too.

Plus, share/option holders (employees, investors, etc) are probably clamoring for liquidity. It's great if you own a hundred million dollars of FB stock on paper - but it's even better if you have the option to sell and diversify your holdings.

[encoderer]

Facebook has skirted this for a year now. They sold a bloc of shares to, IIRC, Goldman Sachs who runs it like a private equity fund, selling shares of the fund to as many of its rich clients as possible.

In other words, they NAT'ed the shares.

[tim_h]

What does it mean that they "NAT'ed the shares"?

[veyron]

like the networking NAT (network address translation).

To facebook, goldman sachs is a single investor. However, many individual investors are part of that GS banner.

In much the same way, with a NAT, there may be many computers within an internal network (but to the outside world there is a single external IP address)