Here's something to keep the longs dreaming. Which reminds me. Might be time to sell some doughnut makers too!
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. (NasdaqNM:BEAS - news), whose stock is one of the most active on the rival Nasdaq, a stock exchange executive said on Thursday.
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``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. (NYSE:IBM - news) 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. (NasdaqNM:SYBS - news) 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. (NYSE:IDT - news) and BMC Software Inc. (NYSE:BMC - news).
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. |
