Nasdaq Offers an IPO Alternative
The exchange is starting a new market for private companies
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Facebook’s 2012 stock market debut kicked off a boom in U.S. initial public offerings and in the process undercut a Wall Street fad the company helped popularize: private share exchanges. SecondMarket and SharesPost, which allowed early investors and employees of closely held companies to sell shares, wound down their exchanges when Facebook insiders no longer needed the services and companies such as Twitter and Square restricted their use. Now Nasdaq OMX Group Chief Executive Officer Robert Greifeld hopes to succeed where these other private exchanges failed.