Investors are clamoring to get into private companies through any means they can, which has led to a boom in the secondary market for private shares. SecondMarket Inc., which facilitates repurchases of shares in private companies, said more than $1.4 billion in such transactions took place on its platform last year. That is four times the number in 2013. The company declined to name specific deals. It is also a record for New York-based SecondMarket, which has been in the business since 2009 and facilitated pre-IPO trading of shares in Facebook Inc.FB +1.46%, among other companies.
