You may be referring to something different, but Facebook was exempted from the SEC rule that requires companies with more than 500 shareholders to report their

You may be referring to something different, but Facebook was exempted from the SEC rule that requires companies with more than 500 shareholders to report their financials publicly (so a public company, but not publicly traded). http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/11/21/sec-gives-facebook-the-greenlight-to-go-beyond-500-shareholders-without-going-public/ http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/11/21/sec-gives-facebook-the-...