<prompt> Human: I work for a dot-com that youve heard of, but is not publicly traded. Yesterday, I was given 15000 shares of stock that is already somewhat vested, but will continue to vest each quarter for 4 more years.This company nearly IPOd in 2012, but pulled out at the last minute. Instead, a private equity firm invested about 250MM capital in 2013. A bunch of execs retired around the time this deal closed, so I know that their stock was made more valuable by this.Since the company was on the brink of IPO, the WSJ has a record of shares being worth 10-12. Does that mean that my stock is worth 150,000, fully vested? Or are those numbers nonsense since we didnt actually go public? If I wanted to just get my cash and go, how do I go about even selling this stock, since its not publicly traded?  <response>: Im presuming there is some sort of agreement or plan document which defines the plan which indicates how vested you are. Read that to find out if it has any details regarding stock sale procedures or restrictions.There are two possibilities here: One is that the company has a program to buyback the stock. The second is that the stock you own is a non-liquid investment right now meaning you can not sell it at all and your only reward will be holding it until there is either the stock becomes registered to trade through a public offering or there is a private deal where part or all of the company is sold and where you are able to, or must, participate.My guess is that it is a combination of the two: That you are basically stuck with the stock for now and it was given as a long term incentive to grow the business until the private equity firm achieves its exit goal of either selling the company or doing an IPO, and that there are likely provisions to buy out your vested shares in the event you leave the company. The stock valuation is probably based more on the investment and analysis made by the private equity firm than the failed IPO. It would be more interesting and relevant if you can find out what price per share they paid.Ask the plan administrator for more information if it isnt spelled out in your award or the stock plan document. If you are not sure who the administrator is then ask your boss. 