Facebook Share Price: $17 Billion Last Week, $11 Billion Today

Just one week after we covered how Facebook shares were trading at a $17 billion valuation on SecondMarket, competing private market platform SharesPost claims that Facebook’s valuation is $11.5 billion. Does something sound fishy here? There are a number of reasons the valuation could be so different, but most of it boils down to the lack of information in private markets.

I can guarantee you though, if I purchased shares of a company at one valuation, and found out that I could purchase it at a 35 percent discount through another trader, I’d be pretty angry.