In some instances there were small differences between the discounts so calculated and the discounts reported by Emory. The means and other summary data reported herein are based upon our calculations. Data summary The Emory data, adjusted as described above, are summarized in Table 1 . Included in the sales is one payment made in stock. The options data include, in addition to grants of options, two determinations of fair market value for taxes, one stock dividend, one issue of shares, one issue of performance units, and two exercises of options.
Several points stand out from the table.
There is enormous dispersion of the discounts. The existence of the discounts and their substantial sizes indicates that stocks which lack marketability are less valuable than marketable stocks. However, the wide variation in the sizes of the discounts indicates that the mere fact of lack of marketability says little about the amount of discount for any particular unmarketable share. As it takes several months to bring a stock offering to market, it is likely that the participants were aware that the stocks which were traded or on which options were granted had a good chance of becoming marketable in a matter of months. The IPO might not take place or the expected price might change for any number of reasons, of which a partial list follows.