Nasdaq Wins Facebook Listing as Market Fends Off NYSE, NYT Says (BLOG)

April 5 (Bloomberg) -- Facebook Inc. plans to list its shares on the Nasdaq Stock Market, according to the New York Times, further cementi...

April 5 (Bloomberg) -- Facebook Inc. plans to list its shares on the Nasdaq Stock Market, according to the New York Times, further cementing the exchange operator’s position as the favored venue for the biggest U.S. technology companies.

The newspaper cited a person with knowledge of the decision, who wasn’t named. While the market capitalization of New York Stock Exchange shares is about triple the value of Nasdaq companies, the latter market operator has about twice as many technology corporations trading for more than $1 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Exchange operators NYSE Euronext and Nasdaq OMX Group Inc., rivals for virtually every IPO in America, competed for what may be the biggest listing by a technology company. Winning the IPO means more fees, a boost in trading revenue and the chance to link an exchange’s brand with the largest social-networking website in the world.

Nasdaq OMX lists seven of the 10 biggest U.S. technology companies by market value, including Apple Inc. and Microsoft Corp., the two largest, as well as Google Inc. and Intel Corp. The NYSE is the home venue for International Business Machines Corp., ranked third.

Nasdaq OMX has more at stake because of the perception it gets all the technology companies, Jamie Selway, head of liquidity management at New York-based Investment Technology Group Inc., said in January. Among Internet IPOs since the beginning of 2011, LinkedIn Corp. and Pandora Inc. picked NYSE, while Nasdaq won Groupon Inc. and Zynga Inc.

Bats IPO
A decision would follow Bats Global Markets Inc., the third-largest U.S. exchange operator, withdrawing its IPO on March 23. Bats planned to compete with NYSE and Nasdaq in corporate listings, making its own shares the first to call the Bats BZX Exchange home. A computer bug prevented Bats from getting its own shares to trade.

Facebook, based in Menlo Park, California, filed Feb. 1 to raise $5 billion in the largest Internet IPO on record. The amount was a placeholder used to calculate fees and may change. The combined U.S. and German debut of Infineon Technologies AG in 2000 totaled about $5.85 billion, making it the biggest technology offering in history.