(REUTERS) BEA Systems considers jump to NYSE
BEA Systems considers jump to NYSE
By Ilaina Jonas
NEW YORK, May 17 (Reuters) - The New York Stock Exchange is
courting infrastructure software maker BEA Systems Inc.
<BEAS.O>, whose stock is one of the most active on the rival
Nasdaq, a stock exchange executive said on Thursday.
"Mr. Coleman has toured campus with Mr. Grasso," Bob Zito,
NYSE executive vice president told Reuters, referring to BEA
Chairman and Chief Executive Bill Coleman and NYSE Chairman
Richard Grasso. "Certainly BEA is a company we would love to be
interested in the New York Stock Exchange. We are talking to
them about the prospects of that happening."
On Wednesday Coleman told Reuters that he was mulling the
proposal.
"I'm considering it," he said, as he walked to the Nasdaq's
center in Times Square.
Coleman said that such a move would help alleviate the
stock's exposure to vast stock price swings.
As a member of the Big Board club, the move also could
allow BEA to more formidably compete against NYSE-listed
International Business Machines Corp. <IBM.N> for the business
the exchange's continuing technological upgrading is expected
to generate, Coleman said.
BEA makes software that serves as a basis for program
development as well has serves as the plumbing that connects
the back-end systems, such as databases and transaction
processing, to the Web.
So far, 12 Nasdaq-listed companies have crossed over to the
NYSE. Software maker Sybase Inc. <SYBS.O> is scheduled to start
trading in a few weeks, Zito said, which would bring that total
for the year to 13, so far.
Several of those transfers are technology companies, such
as IDT Corp. <IDT.N> and BMC Software Inc. <BMC.N>.
Prudential analyst John McPeake said the NYSE lends itself
to more accountability and companies have a lot more visibility
into what's happening to their stock because of specialists.
Their job is to maintain order in trading and smooth out large
swings in a stock prices. The Big Board's more stringent rules
could help boost the status of technology stocks, whose
reputations among investors have been sullied by stock plunges,
cash shortages and bankruptcies.
"What's happened in technology is that any kind of
validation of your financial soundness, I think would be
perceived to be a positive," McPeake said. "It says, 'We're not
fly by night. We're on the New York Stock Exchange.' "
David Weild, Nasdaq's new executive vice president of
corporate service, said the NYSE has stepped up its pursuit of
Nasdaq companies.
"They've gotten more aggressive in the couple of years," he
said.
Weild also said the defections are a reflection of the
drastic drop in the stock prices of technology companies that
have driven down the Nasdaq to about half its level of March
2000.
"I don't think they would have defected if the market was
good," he said.
((Ilaina Jonas, New York Newsdesk, 212-859-1676))
REUTERS
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