But Fidelity isn&#x27;t writing down the value of the company, it&#x27;s writing down the value of its shares. Do you have any guesses as to what this means, given they are probably the most senior equityholders on this investment?<p>My suspicion (from experience in the mutual fund industry) is that this is tax accounting related. Overly simplistic explanation: Mutual funds typically distribute short term capital gains at year-end, which is taxed as ordinary income (~40%), not capital gains (~15%).<p>Managers of funds that hold private securities actually have the choice to &#x27;mark down&#x27; the prices of their securities in any given month. Think of it like valuing a house - if you want to value your total net worth, you can mark your price as what you want, to an extent (see Trump). Managers often use this flexibility to &#x27;bury&#x27; losses in down times, or for tax advantages.<p>Finally, can&#x27;t agree enough about who loses in these cases. Employees who vastly over-value options are the folks who lose in this case. Investments made by institutional folks like Fidelity are too small to even register as a blip to their overall funds, and those funds are diversified and managed to handle downturns in sectors like this.