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Strategies & Market Trends : Rande Is . . . HOME -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: gamesmistress who wrote (17899)	1/4/2000 10:39:00 PM
From: gamesmistress	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 57584

Anybody else see this tonight about the NASD selling NASDAQ? What implications does this have for the individual investor? Also, didn't the AMEX "merge" with NASDAQ? Is the AMEX eventually going to disappear as a separate board? NASD to Sell Off Nasdaq Stock Market By Elizabeth Smith Jan 4 8:22pm ET NEW YORK (Reuters) - The National Association of Securities Dealers took a historic step on Tuesday by deciding to sell the Nasdaq stock market to raise $1 billion to help fight off rapidly growing competition from electronic network rivals. The NASD board unanimously approved a radical overhaul that will lead to the private sale of up to 79 percent of the No. 2. U.S. stock market to NASD member firms, the biggest Nasdaq-listed companies and some major institutional investors, NASD officials said. The move on the part of the NASD, a nonprofit organization for stockbrokers whose roots date back to the 1930s, marks the first time a U.S. stock market is being offered to investors and spun off from its parent body. The idea is that the private placement would disentangle the for-profit Nasdaq from the NASD, and its regulatory arm, NASD Regulation Inc., or NASDR. Free from its status as a subsidiary of the NASD, the Nasdaq would be more nimble and better able to raise money and to compete in a fast-changing U.S. securities industry, NASD executives said. ``Today's board actions are a win-win-win for investors, issuers and NASD members,' NASD Chairman Frank Zarb said. 'Investors and issuers get a more agile, better capitalized Nasdaq, one that can be quicker to put technology to use and better able to create the digital stock market.' Also, as part of the deal, the largest 130 companies whose shares trade on the Nasdaq such as Microsoft Corp. (MSFT.O) and Dell Computer Corp. (DELL.O) will be able to buy stakes in the stock market. By the end of the private placement's second phase, the NASD would only be left with about 22-percent of the Nasdaq. Whether the private placement is a precursor to a public offering is still uncertain with that decision left up to the new Nasdaq board, Zarb said. Stock exchanges are traditionally the property of individuals or brokerage firms that own their seats and, consequently, the right to do business in that market. But with the advent of Internet-based stock trading technology and upstart private trading networks, the Nasdaq and the New York Stock Exchange are being forced to reinvent themselves. The Nasdaq especially faces stiff competition from private trading networks, known as electronic communication networks, or ECNs, such as Reuters Group Plc's (RTR.L) Instinet unit. ECNs, computer systems that match share orders placed by a network of brokers, now account for close to 30 percent of the daily share volume in Nasdaq stocks. ``This is a competitive response to our presence,' said Cameron Smith, general counsel of Island, the No. 2 U.S. ECN. 'They are finding that their corporate governance can't act quickly enough to react to the competition.'