In March 2013, Nasdaq and SharesPost announced Nasdaq Private Market (NPM), a joint venture intended to create a preeminent marketplace for private growth companies.  The road to full regulatory approval has been long but in January 2014, FINRA approved the registration as a broker-dealer of NPM Securities, LLC, a Nasdaq OMX Group brokerage unit, a necessary first step to the launch of NPM itself.  In its broker-dealer FINRA profile, NPM Securities said that it is in “the process of registering with the SEC as an alternative trading system assisting in the matching of buyers and sellers in primary and secondary offerings of the securities of privately held companies.”  The profile also revealed that NPM is owned 75% by Nasdaq OMX and the balance by SharesPost.