In the wake of last week’s news that the SEC is looking into secondary stock trades of private companies, we reported that leading exchange SecondMarket had not received any formal or informal inquiry from the SEC.
That now has changed.
What follows is an official statement from SecondMarket spokesman Mark Murphy:
“We have now received a voluntary request for information from the SEC regarding ‘Pre-IPO Pooled Investment Funds.’ We are fully cooperating with the SEC in this inquiry. SecondMarket is a registered broker-dealer, fully regulated by FINRA and the SEC. We do not intend to comment further on this matter.”
What’s notable is that SecondMarket seems to be confirming the SEC’s interest in pooled investment funds that trade on its exchange, but not in the overall concept of secondary market trading (via an exchange or otherwise).
In other words, this is only about financial disclosure — or the lack thereof — only so far as it applies to funds that are being raised to invest in companies like Facebook or Twitter. The SEC seems uninterested in one individual buying Facebook shares from another individual via SecondMarket or other such exchanges.