If Wikipedia.com were a private company how much would it be worth?

Accredited Investor Net Worth Calculation Guidance: how to value Private Company Securities?

• For purpose of qualifying under Regulation D Rule 501 as an Accredited Investor under item (a)(5) "Any natural person whose individual net worth, or joint net worth with that person's spouse, at the time of his purchase exceeds $1,000,000", is there standard accounting (GAAP or SEC) guidance as to how to calculate the net worth (other than the recent amendment regarding primary residence)? Specifically, should restricted company stock be included in the net worth calculation, and how should it be valued? e.g. valued at original purchase price, the valuation used in the last qualified funding round (if preferred), use the last 409A valuation (if common), use FAS157, etc?

• Answer:

  Yes, everything can be included. Rights to a 50-year springing remainder on the Beatles' songs would still count. Private stock should, as the default rule in all these sorts of cases, be measured at FMV. That's not a direct answer because the methods you describe are all ways of getting to FMV -- they just depend on the circumstances. How recent was the valuation? What has changed, for good or bad, since that time, both internally and externally? To help us, the question might be focused on the issue of whether you're an investor looking to get access or a company looking to reduce risk. That might lead to different judgments about the analysis or type of documentation that might be produced to answer the question. In other words, if you are the company and the person is sitting at $994,785 net worth and you think that there might be $6k of sway in the numbers, then I'll simply say this: figure out what the cost of being wrong is first. (And that's a topic for another question.) And then narrow down your risk of being wrong.