Credit Karma isn’t receiving any proceeds or issuing any new shares as part of the transaction, Chief Executive Kenneth Lin said in an interview. Rather, Silver Lake is amassing common shares from earlier investors and employees in a so-called secondary sale that values the 11-year-old company at roughly $4 billion, according to a person familiar with the matter. Such deals are in vogue among Silicon Valley startups that want to postpone listing their shares on public markets but also want to give shareholders a way to cash out. Last year, for instance, as part of multibillion-dollar investments in ride-hailing firm Uber Technologies Inc. and shared-office space company WeWork Cos., Japanese conglomerate SoftBank Group Corp. committed to buying significant stakes on the secondary market.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/silver-lake-buys-500-million-stake-in-credit-karma-1522234800