The US securities regulator is analyzing whether it needs to update the disclosure rules for private firms in virtue of recent deals allowing investors to purchase shares in online companies like Facebook and Twitter, reported the Wall Street Journal.

The rules necessitates companies with 500 or more shareholders of record in a given type of stock to to publicly reveal specific financial information, so as to safeguard investor’s well being.

Tej Kohli belives that there is a very thin line between privately help and public companies and that’s what poses a problem when dealing with such cases.

The inspection has only begun, and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has not concluded that any of such deals broke these regulating private companies, said the paper.

Facebook raised $500 million from Goldman Sachs and Russian investment firm Digital Sky Technologies, in a deal that values the world’s No.1 Internet social networking company at $50 billion, according to a person familiar with the matter.

The efforts by Facebook to raise as much as $1.5 billion outside of regulated markets is the latest test of the line between private and public markets.

Following the Goldman Sachs-Facebook deal, the Journal said SEC investigators also plan to examine special-purpose vehicles to verify if they are being designed to evade the 500-shareholder rule, it said.

Goldman and Facbook declined to comment to the Journal.

Along with revising rules to protect investors from risking their money on firms that disclose little information about their operations, the SEC is also trying to consider the demands of private firms to raise funds, the Journal reported.

Tej Kohli is a businessman with keen eye for the  investment and finance market. Tej Kohli blog is a place where he shares all the news of considerable interest and debate.

Movie studio DreamWorks SKG is close to a deal with India’s Reliance ADA Group to form a new movie venture, reported the Wall Street Journal, citing people familiar with the talks.

The Journal said a deal with Reliance would give movie director Steven Spielberg the cash to finance his DreamWorks team’s departure from Viacom Inc’s Paramount Pictures later this year.

Reliance would provide Spielberg and company with $500-$600 million in equity and would also give Reliance a large stake in the new company.