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Some time ago, Mark Zuckerberg began allowing Facebook employees to make a quick buck by selling their shares through private channels (as opposed to waiting for Facebook to hit the Nasdaq or Dow).  Since then, many have done exactly that.  The interesting thing is that the price of Facebook's stock has risen a whole lot in recent months.

Brian Womack talked to Adam Oliveri, a managing director at SecondMarket, and discovered, "Facebook shares are currently selling for about $21 each . . . .  That's up from $14.77 in July."  Which works out to a gain of 42 percent.

The Dow, by comparison, has risen about 23 percent in the same period.  And the Nasdaq - which, with all its tech stocks, makes for a better point of comparison - is only up 20 percent.

So why all the interest in Facebook?  Well, its growth rate has been spectacular.  And it's not like similar companies are going unnoticed; just yesterday, we reported a big transaction involving Xing.

Still, it looks like folks are again expecting a Facebook IPO.  Paul Bard, a Renaissance Capital analyst, told Womack, "The fact that the stock on these private exchanges moved - I'm sure that has to do with the fact that people think a deal is coming sooner rather than later."

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