If you didn't “like” how Facebook's once eagerly-awaited, now much maligned, Initial Public Offering went down, you may be heartened to hear that the Securities and Exchange Commission may have been prodded into action. Specifically, it is reviewing the “quiet period” pre-IPO companies are supposed to abide by and evaluating existing rules for pre-issuance communications.

“Ensuring that our communications rules facilitate, not hinder, the ability of an issuer to communicate with all investors is an important aspect of the staff's review of these rules,” SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro wrote last week to Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), chairman of the House Oversight Committee.

That letter was obtained, and first reported on, by The Wall Street Journal.

"We should review our communications rules and the application of the quiet period in light of the changes in both the way the market functions and the changes in communications technology that have occurred since our last major reform in 2005," Schapiro added.

Among the concerns shareholders have had with the IPO is whether lead underwriter Morgan Stanley's last-minute reduction of revenue forecasts was shared with major clients (during Facebook's pre-launch “roadshows”), at the expense of un-informed retail investors working from initial, more optimistic price targets. That move, defended as a separation of underwriting and investment functions, has drawn shareholder lawsuits and inquiries from both state and federal regulators.

Time will tell whether the SEC makes good on its hints to tweak the IPO process for the first time since an overhaul in 2005, or if the letter last week proves to be merely lip service to Issa's recent demand for a “fundamental transformation of the IPO process.”

In a June letter to Schapiro, Issa, on behalf of his committee, presented a case that investment banks no longer be allowed to set IPO prices, a practice known as “book building. Instead, all companies would take part in a “Dutch Auction,” where unrestricted order-taking sets prices via market demand.

He questioned whether rules pertaining to roadshows and the “quiet period” restrictions on communicating beyond the prospectus undercut mainstream investors. Underwriters have the ability to develop support from select, potential investors while protected from a public debate over the issuers' valuation, Issa wrote, citing “limited public information regarding valuation issues that preceded the Facebook IPO" and the inadequate content of S-1 filings.

He asked: “How does restricting ordinary investors' access to marketing materials from an issuer protect them? Is the quiet period intended to protect ordinary investors from themselves?”