而且，卖家从承销商那里得到了相当大的优惠，很可能是由于Facebook施加了巨大的压力。Facebook把承销权交给了那些渴望和Facebook挂上钩的公司。

    “承销商折扣”——承销商因为承销股票发行而获得的折扣——只占到38美元发行价的1.1%，对首次公开募股来说非常之低。相比之下，据标普资本（S&P Capital IQ）的资料显示，社交游戏公司Zynga上市时的承销商折扣为3.25%，团购网站Groupon为6%，房产估值在线服务公司Zillow为7%。

    这意味着，在这次IPO发行中出售股票的Facebook内部人士不仅高价出售了股票，还可以把相当大部分的收益放进自己的口袋。

    我不是说这其中有什么不合法的地方。我敢肯定，律师们已经详细审查了这次IPO发行的各个方面，包括有选择地向大型投资者披露，Facebook的数据已经开始显出疲态。结论是：嘴上说给予普通人权力是一回事，但在金融世界里给予他们权力则完全是另外一回事。

    ——Doris Burke协助进行了本文的调查工作

    译者：千牛絮

    What's more, the sellers got an extraordinarily cheap deal from the underwriters, probably because of incredible pressure that Facebook exerted by shopping the deal to firms who were drooling over the prospect of having their name connected with Facebook's.

    The "underwriting discount" -- the amount that the underwriters kept for themselves in return for doing the deal -- was only 1.1% of the $38 offering price, which is extraordinarily low for an initial public offering. By contrast, the discount for Zynga's (ZNGA) offering was 3.25%, according to S&P Capital IQ, and was 6% for Groupon (GRPN), and 7% for Zillow (Z).

    This means that Facebook insiders who sold in the offering not only got a high price for their shares, they got to keep an extraordinarily large portion of the proceeds.

    I'm not saying any of this is illegal. I'm sure that lawyers have blessed every aspect of this, including any selective disclosure to big players that Facebook's numbers were starting to look a little ugly. The bottom line is: it's one thing to talk about empowering average people. But empowering them in the financial world is a whole different game.

    -- Research assistance by Doris Burke