For posterior or posterity as the case may be (grin):
Here's text of the whole email that went out from Prosper at the time -- along with my own ruminations sub-text to a "Prosper Quiet Diary" entry no longer available in original form.
Turn out the lights,
Shut the door.
Prosper turns quiet,
Quiet once more.You saw it on your screens Saturday:
Prosper is in a quiet period and is not accepting any new Borrower or Lender
registrations until our registration statement with the SEC becomes effective.
To learn more: Prosper> Help> General> Quiet PeriodVery early Saturday morning Prosper emailed the participants:
Sent: 5/9/2009 12:07:09 A.M. Pacific Daylight Time
Subj: Discontinuance of CA State Offering
Dear First Name,
We are writing to inform you that we are discontinuing our California intrastate offering at this time.
We have been overwhelmed by the outcry from potential investors around the country who want to participate in peer-to-peer lending. Therefore, after much consideration we have decided to voluntarily shut down our operation in order to complete our SEC approval for a nationwide peer-to-peer lending platform.
Your current lender agreements will be unaffected; your existing loans will continue to be serviced; you'll be able to track and monitor your loans; and you'll be able to withdraw funds from your Prosper account.
As a result of this decision, we will not be accepting new lender or borrower registrations or loans, or new commitments from existing lenders effective immediately. Until this process is complete, we are required to be in a quiet period and will be unable to respond to press, blogger or other inquiries related to our SEC registration process, even though we would like to.
We want to assure you that Prosper is looking forward to being able to offer a transparent, durable and participatory lending institution very soon.
We sincerely apologize for this inconvenience or disappointment our decision may have caused. We want to thank you for your continued support and patience. We look forward to serving the needs of the community in the hopefully not too distant future.
Regards,
Prosper Marketplace, Inc
So what are they trying to tell us?The phrase, "voluntarily shut down" sounds an awful lot like the olde
"Your fired!" "No, you can't fire me, I quit!" syndrome. No company in their 'right mind' turns away all their existing business because they might get other business in the future. Not voluntarily anyway.
"Until this process is complete, we are required to be in a quiet period" is more telling. It suggests 'mother' SEC has warned the 'kids' not to be playing in the sandbox in California while they are dressing for Sunday-go-to-meetin' in Washington. Perhaps there was grumbling elsewhere in the nation. Bear in mind that at least some of the states are looking at Prosper's national proposal on a state level.
As for the phrase, "unable to respond... even though we would like to." -- Prosper has hired a Washington DC lobbying concern to promote themselves and P2P lending.
Read a PDF of the Lobbying Disclosure here. Meanwhile, Fix The Credit Crisis.org, the bully pulpit Prosper set up for individual lenders to lobby on their own was shut down Saturday morning (fixthecreditcrisis.org now redirects to prosper.com).