Facebook Shares Get Sliced Into Derivatives as Value Surges

Someone is betting big against Facebook:

[...]after talking to institutional investors who were having trouble finding a way to invest in Facebook. He expects to raise at least $100 million for his Facebook-specific fund.

By creating derivatives of the stock, the investment firms are helping Facebook keep its shareholder count at 499 or less, the maximum number a company can have before it has to disclose results to the public.

Something like this:

  Present Value
  $100mm = capital
  $20    = current price per share
  5mm    = # of derivitave shares held
  -----------------------------------------------------
  Future Value
  Long Pos.  = (5mm * expected price per share)
  Short Pos. = capital - (5mm * expected price per share) + fees