The big question that should always lurk in people's minds when considering a stock transaction: if they're saying that this stock is worth $500M and I don't wa

The big question that should always lurk in people's minds when considering a stock transaction: if they're saying that this stock is worth $500M and I don't want it in stock, why can't they sell it to someone else and give me the cash from that sale? If it is worth $500M, they can sell that stock to a VC or other investor for that price. It probably isn't worth that much which explains why FB didn't want to go that route. EDIT: note, this isn't meant as being harsh on stock transactions. Often times, you want to offer stock so that the people gaining the stock stay with you and have an investment in the acquiring company doing well with what they've bought. In publicly traded companies, you wouldn't want to flood the market with a huge number of common shares since that would depress the price. However, in this case, that doesn't seem to apply.