The SEC examines the market shares of unlisted companies like Facebook and Twitter

A user views a page of social networking site Facebook. AFP / ROSLANE RAHMANLe Constable of U.S. equity markets, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), is interested in trading activities of securities of unlisted companies promising, like Facebook and Twitter, say, Tuesday, December 28, the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal.

These are discrete platforms that organize private exchange market, helping to propel the economy of various companies of the Web, some valuations are reaching tens of billion (42.4 billion dollars - of 32.29 billion EUR - for Facebook), according to The New York Times. "Although trading volumes remain thin, the number of transactions increases from month to month," the U.S.

daily. The SEC reportedly sent letters to several market participants, including specialized funds in unlisted companies, asking on what basis they fix the value of the shares, since these companies are not listed, do not obligation to publish their financial data. OBTAIN PARTS "THE NEXT GOOGLE" Constable of the market would also seek to ensure compliance with a rule requiring every company with more than 500 shareholders must disclose certain financial information.

"One question that arises is whether the establishment of funds provides a way around this limit of 500 shareholders," says the Wall Street Journal in its online edition. Most shares are sold by employees of the companies in question, while buyers are "primarily of wealthy speculators hoping to get a piece of the next Apple, Microsoft or Google before the rest of the investors are given the opportunity," according to the New York Times.

The Director General of the platform for exchanges SharesPost, David Weir, told the newspaper he was responding to "a growing need" to both sellers and buyers, given that the companies in question show no impatience to go public.

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