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NYSE wins 2012 IPO wars

By Maureen Farrell December 27, 2012: 3:19 PM ET

The battle for the hottest IPOs among stock exchanges is fierce, and it looks like the New York Stock Exchange has won first prize.

Early in the year, it looked like Nasdaq (NDAQ) would be a shoe-in, after it landed the Facebook (FB) listing.

Of course, the Facebook IPO was an epic flop, and the New York Stock Exchange (NYX) ultimately edged ahead of its rival.

The NYSE landed the majority, or roughly 53%, of all U.S. initial public offerings, according to data from Dealogic. And after missing out on Facebook, the NYSE also landed 52% of all technology IPOs.

Corporate spinoffs also helped, with 20 of the 77 companies that listed on NYSE spun out of existing publicly traded companies.

That's quite a reversal from 2011, when Nasdaq won 78 IPOs and NYSE claimed just 71 listings for its exchange.

Shares of the NYSE's parent have also surged 21% this year, compared with Nasdaq's nearly flat performance. The bulk of the rally came last week, after NYSE Euronext agreed to be acquired by ICE, an exchange that trades commodities and derivatives, for $8.2 billion.

Beyond winning listings, the exchanges also try to lure companies away from each other. NYSE nudged out Nasdaq, with 16 companies moving to the NYSE from the Nasdaq, compared with 12 that moved the other way.

Overall, 2012 was a relatively slow year for IPOs, with only 145 companies going public. That was one fewer than in 2011, but they raised $47 billion in 2012, compared with $41 billion in 2011. Part of the increase came from Facebook's outsize offering.

The IPO market is still a far cry from its recent high point of 2007, when 288 companies filed for IPOs and raised $65 billion.

After a tepid 2012, many investors and market participants predict an uptick in 2013. Hotly anticipated IPOs like Twitter and Square should be absent from the lineup, but Bob McCooey, the head of listings for Nasdaq, said he's seen more companies considering an IPO compared to this time last year.

Knight Capital sidelined by power issues

Knight Capital Group stopped taking new trading orders Wednesday afternoon as it struggled with "power issues" and requested its clients re-route all stock orders to other trading firms, according to two traders who received a memo from the firm.

Jersey City, N.J.,-based Knight plays a key role on Wall Street by acting as a middleman in the markets, completing investors' buy and sell orders.

The company's latest snafu comes as U.S. financial markets MORE
Hibah Yousuf - Oct 31, 2012 2:53 PM ET
Posted in: Knight Capital, NYSE, power, stocks, trades, Wall Street
Black Monday: 25 years after the crash

It was 25 years ago today when Wall Street suffered one its biggest market crashes in history.

On October 19, 1987, the Dow Jones industrial average (INDU) tumbled 508 points, losing more than 22% of its value and marking the second-largest percentage loss in a singly day. (The worst was when the Dow lost 24% on December 12, 1914, when the New York Stock Exchange reopened after having been closed for MORE
Hibah Yousuf - Oct 19, 2012 2:53 PM ET
Posted in: black monday, China, crash, dotcom, dow, NYSE, s&p 500, stocks
LifeLock's debut not a lock, stock drops 7%

LifeLock hasn't found much security in the public markets yet.

Shares of the maker of identity theft protection services, which began trading Wednesday under the ticker "LOCK" (LOCK), fell nearly 7% in their New York Stock Exchange (NYX) debut.

LifeLock was poised for an inauspicious kickoff. The company's underwriters priced the 15.7 million shares sold in the IPO at $9 -- below the expected range of $9.50 to $11.50. The IPO generated MORE
Maureen Farrell - Oct 3, 2012 11:06 AM ET
Posted in: Dave & Buster's, Federal Trade Commission, identity theft protection, initial public offering, IPO, lifelock, New York Stock Exchange, NYSE, social security number
Few fans show up for Manchester United's IPO

Manchester United didn't have many fans cheering for the 134-year-old British soccer team when it made its debut on the New York Stock Exchange (NYX) Friday.

Shares of Manchester United (MANU) barely budged above their $14 initial public offering price. The stock opened at $14.05 and stuck mostly around that level for most of the day. The stock closed its first day of trading precisely at its $14 IPO price.

Manchester United MORE
Maureen Farrell - Aug 10, 2012 2:43 PM ET
Posted in: football, initial public offering, IPO, Manchester United, New York Stock Exchange, NYSE, soccer
Nasdaq's big win: Kraft leaving the NYSE

Nasdaq finally has something to cheer. Dow Jones industrial average component Kraft Foods announced Friday that it is moving its listing from the New York Stock Exchange to Nasdaq (NDAQ) on June 26, 2012.

With Kraft's move, Nasdaq is landing not one but two new stocks. Kraft Foods (KFT) will keep its grocery business under the Kraft name and symbol, KFT. Later this year its snacks business with start trading under MORE
Maureen Farrell - Jun 8, 2012 10:19 AM ET
Posted in: exchanges, FaceBook, IPO, Kraft, Mondelez, Nasdaq, NYSE
Will Nasdaq weather the Facebook storm?

Nasdaq's Facebook "snafu" may prove to be good news for rival NYSE Euronext (NYX) as the battle for exchange domination continues. While Nasdaq is seen as the logical choice for tech companies to go public, this latest disaster could make techies think twice.

It's still early days so it's too soon to tell if there will be a big shift away from the tech-heavy Nasdaq (NDAQ). But NYSE will likely be MORE
Catherine Tymkiw - May 23, 2012 11:28 AM ET
Posted in: FaceBook, IPO, Nasdaq, NYSE

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