A 5.5x ROI? For who? That's not how valuations work. If it has a current valuation of 750m on paper and sells for 750m, then the folks who participated in th

A 5.5x ROI? For who? That's not how valuations work. If it has a current valuation of 750m on paper and sells for 750m, then the folks who participated in the most recent round don't make a dime (other than liquidation prefs). The valuation is the total value of outstanding shares (investors, founders, previous round investors, employees, options pool, advisors, board folks, etc). There are presumably some liquidation prefs for investors, so a 750m exit would result in a minuscule return for the recent investors and likely virtually nothing for folks with options. Of course it all comes down to terms. Effectively, Ning just said to their recent investors with a straight face: "We think we can sell Ning in 3-5ish years for 4 BILLIONish." ... Which likely means IPO.