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Non-Tech : Instinet Group, Inc. (INET) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Glenn Petersen who wrote (25)	4/10/2002 8:55:58 AM
From: Glenn Petersen	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 46

Instinet CEO quits in top management shuffle By Mark Weinraub NEW YORK, April 9 (Reuters) - Instinet Group Inc. <INET.O> President and Chief Executive Doug Atkin resigned on Tuesday as part of a shake-up in top management, amid sagging share volumes and tough competition in the electronic trading network business. New York-based Instinet, which is majority owned by global news and information company Reuters Group Plc <RTR.L> <RTRSY.O>, said Chief Financial Officer Mark Nienstedt, 52, will replace the 39-year-old Atkin on an interim basis. The announcement comes less than two weeks after Instinet said it may report its first-ever quarterly loss and will take a $55 million charge for cost cuts. The company said at the time it is looking at another round of job cuts, which would be its fourth in the past year, as well as improvements in its technology systems. The stock closed at $6.83, down 17 cents on the day but up from an earlier low of $6.32. The stock has fallen more than 50 percent from its public debut at $14.50 in May 2001. Despite Instinet's struggles of late, industry observers were not expecting a shake-up in the firm's management. "I was taken entirely by surprise," Jefferies & Co. Inc analyst Charlotte Chamberlain said. "I had no inkling that this was about to happen. If there were any dissensions ... at the board level, it certainly never leaked out." Even with a new chief executive, Instinet still faces a hard road in highly competitive environment, said Chamberlain, who has a "hold" rating on Instinet's stock. Instinet also said it named Jean-Marc Bouhelier, 37, as its new chief operating officer. Bouhelier, who had been in charge of the firm's U.S. Institutional and Professional Business, replaces a retiring Kenneth Marshall. Marshall, 59, will stay on until the end of the year as a special consultant to Instinet's board of directors and Nienstedt, the firm said in a statement. Atkin, who had become the public face of the firm through frequent appearances on television and in media profiles, had been with Instinet since 1984. He had been president and CEO since 1998. Wearing trademark casual attire, he often gave speeches at financial services conferences on the future of electronic trading. "My colleagues and I are working closely with Instinet in its drive to maximize the value of its franchise and improve its operating performance," Reuters Chief Executive Tom Glocer said in a statement. "We have confidence in Instinet's future and fully support the management team." Instinet, like other companies that run trading systems called electronic communications networks (ECNs), generates the bulk of its business charging traders for matching up buy and sell orders for Nasdaq stocks. ECNs account for about one-third of the Nasdaq's trading volume. Volumes have slipped across stock markets recently as the prolonged bear market has eroded investor appetite for stocks. Instinet's share volume dropped by 40 percent in March. In a bid to attract more traders to its network, Instinet recently cut its trading fees. The Island ECN, Instinet's largest rival, also recently cut the prices it charges traders. In November, Island's monthly Nasdaq trading volume surpassed Instinet's for the first time, according to data provided by the National Association of Securities Dealers. That trend has continued, but Instinet has said there are different ways to compute volume. Instinet also faces increased competition from the recent merger of two of its smaller rivals, Archipelago and REDIBook. The merged firm should be able to cut costs, analysts have said. 04/09/02 17:35 ET