The successful debut of Twitter on the New York Stock Exchange has bolstered the Big Board's bid to become the top listing venue for technology companies. According to data from Thomson Reuters, Nasdaq OMX Group easily listed the most number of technology related IPOs from 1999 until 2012.
This year, NYSE Euronext had pulled even for the year. Aside from Twitter, nineteen other technoligy companies have chosen to go public on the NYSE in 2013. Nasdaq has landed only 14 listings overall this year. Tech IPO proceeds also seek out to be listed in the NYSE over the Nasdaq at a volume of USD4.6 billion for the NYSE and USD1.9 billion in the technology sector.
This trend is attributed partly to the Nasdaq bungle of the Facebook Inc IPO last year. Another factor is the amendments to its current listing standards made in 2008 allowing for smaller growing firms to qualify and list on the bourse.
According to Nasdaq's head of listing business Bruce Aust, "I wouldn't even say they won Twitter, I'd say we lost it. They did that becasue they realized that once a company lists on Nasdaq, they really stay with us." He referred to the NYSE listing rule changes as well as the lowering of market capitalization and income limits, allowing for market competition.
The Facebook IPO was highly anticipated byt a Nasdaq electronic system glitch had set off a number of consequent events that made some market players claim prevented them from knowing their stock position with Facebook. This resulted in a claim of losses amounting USD500 million.
For its part, Nasdaq had compensated firms in the amount of USD41.6 million for their losses and paid a fine worth USD10 million by the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Facebook has just been able to return to IPO prices since that day.
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