Goldman Sachs Group's announcement that it is offering its private clients a chance to invest in Facebook has touched off a battle for the shares among its rich clients.

Time will tell, of course, whether the $50 billionvaluation on the social networker implied by the deal turns out to be a good investment. But for now, wealthy" target="_blank" title="a.富有的；丰富的">wealthyclients want in.

To be a client of Goldman's Private Wealth Management division, which is doling out the shares, clients must have a net worth of at least $10 million. (That is the official cut-off, though plenty of Goldman clients are worth less).

Goldman told clients in a memo this morning that in order to get Facebook shares, they need to commit at buy at least $2 million of the shares and are prohibited from selling them until 2013. Wealth advisers say a family needs to have a net worth of at least $30 million to feasibly invest $2 million in one stock that is illiquid for two years.

In an email, Goldman declined to comment on the deal or the terms to clients.

Clients also were told in this morning's memo that the information about Facebook is highly confidential could constitute material nonpublic information if improperly disclosed. 'This information is not to be used other than in connection with your investment,' the memo states.

Yet people familiar with the deal say it is likely to get subscriptions for as much as three or four times the amountavailable. So the allocation of the shares to clients is quickly turning into a hotly contested round of horse-trading to determine which clients get the most shares.

Clients asking for $2 million of shares, for instance, may get only $500,000 of shares. As a result, some clients are asking for $5 million to $10 million of shares, hoping to get $2 million.

This over-bidding has the effect of weeding out the smaller (i.e., less rich) clients, since clients must prove they have the ready cash to buy the requested number shares in the unlikely event that they get the full amount.

'We're hearing that the bigger clients will get the largest allocations and the smaller client may get little or none,' said one wealth-managementadviserworking with several Goldman clients. 'But that's not unusual in this business. They want to treat their biggest clients best.'

Goldman clients who are invested with the Goldman Sachs Investment Partners fund, an investment fund for private clients, also will get a slug of the stock, though probably much less. Those clients may get only $25,000 to $50,000 of the shares, according to two Goldman clients.

Still, the largest allocations are likely to go to the biggest clients.

Then again, accredited investors can simply go on sharespost.com, an online marketplace for shares of closely held companies, and try to buy the shares without having to beg their Goldman broker.