As Facebook gears up for its initial public offering (IPO), there are many decisions the company has to make. Two of them are: “which exchange it will be listed on?” and “what will is stock symbol?” The first one is still unknown but the second one has already been revealed: Facebook’s stock symbol will simply be “FB” and it can use it on either exchange. As for the first question, it seems rivals Duncan Niederauer’s New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and Robert Greifeld’s Nasdaq are still duking it out. “It’s a very heated battle,” Larry Tabb, founder of capital markets advisory firm Tabb Group, told The New York Post. “I’d hate to say that one exchange is in a more dominant position than the other at this point. Facebook won’t significantly change the listing revenues for these companies but there could be a real halo effect wherein other companies decided to list with whichever wins Facebook.”
It seems the battle between Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs is not the only one Facebook has created. Both the NYSE and Nasdaq have been campaigning aggressively for the listing during the past year, trying to sway Facebook CFO David Ebersman and other executives.
Historically, Nasdaq has been the listing platform for technology startups, but in recent years, the NYSE has responded by being more aggressive in courting them onto its platform in advance of Facebook’s IPO. That’s because winning a Facebook listing could jump- start an equity market for either exchange platform. Most importantly, it could mean a boost to their reputation on Wall Street.
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