The main difference though is sell to whom? In the case of a public company, you sell your shares via the market to whomever will buy them. In the case of a p

The main difference though is sell to whom? In the case of a public company, you sell your shares via the market to whomever will buy them. In the case of a private company, you're selling the shares back to the company, and the valuation is formulaic instead of market-based (unless there is some kind of private "market" that continues, but I've never seen that and would doubt its legality).