Dealing what analysts call a stunning blow to the venerable New York Stock Exchange, Internet search kings Google will list their widely-anticipated initial public offering on the high-tech NASDAQ composite exchange.
“Google is an outstanding company with a great management team,” said NASDAQ spokeswoman Bethany Sherman in a formal statement, “and we wish the company well with its initial public offering.”
Google isn’t saying why it chose the NASDAQ listing, but an attorney with Fish & Richardson – the firm which is also helping the adult Internet wage its battle against Acacia Research Corp.’s streaming media patent claims – told the Associated Press that Google bringing its $2.7 billion IPO to NASDAQ made sense from the venture capital perspective.
“The guys at NASDAQ are venture capital-type guys, entrepreneurs,” said Fish & Richardson securities attorney Joseph Bartlett. “NASDAQ has been the place where [they] have been going for years.
“The [New York Stock Exchange] already gets a very large percentage of major new listings,” said IPO expert William Gorin to the AP, “and NASDAQ relies more on technology and Internet deals.”
The Google move would have meant big money to the NYSE, which the AP said earned 27 percent of its $1 billion 2003 revenues from listing fees. The NASDAQ earned 28 percent of its $590 million 2003 revenues from listing fees.
The NYSE is also recovering from the fallout of former chairman Dick Grasso, forced out last summer after his $139.5 million pay package enraged investors, the AP said, while NASDAQ actually had more to lose than the NYSE had to gain from a Google listing for its IPO.
