• Dealbook, Tuesday, December 28, 2010 12:48 PM

Action at under-the-regulatory-radar exchange markets trading shares of hot private tech companies such as Facebook has raised a few eyebrows at the SEC. It's unclear what specific activity has caught the attention of the SEC, but Wall Street brokerages have formed investment pools to invest in the companies. "Over the last year, several private exchanges have matched up buyers and sellers of shares in these fast-growing companies. Though the volume remains thin, the number of transactions is increasing each month," explains Dealbook.

Sorkin chalks up the development of the markets to shifting IPO practices, in which companies wait much longer than they had previously to go public. On the largest of these emerging exchanges, called SecondMarket, $40 million in Facebook (now trading at an implied valuation of $42.4 billion) shares changed hands in one auction.

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