I don’t think I even needed to tell you what the ticker symbol was going to be. Seriously. You could have seen Facebook‘s choice of ‘FB’ coming from miles away.
The marginally more interesting part of today’s news is that Facebook chose the Nasdaq as its home, as opposed to the New York Stock Exchange.
The Nasdaq exchange is where shares in big technology companies like Apple and Google trade, so it’s little surprise that Facebook will trade there too. Nasdaq is a fully-electronic exchange, as opposed to the NYSE’s hybrid model which includes floor traders and an electronic exchange.
According to an article in the New York Times, Facebook’s decision to IPO on the Nasdaq may prove beneficial for the company, as the NYSE’s pricing structure is slightly more expensive. Despite the fact companies have to pay either exchange an annual fee, Facebook will end up paying less, over time, for the privilege to trade on the Nasdaq.
This is a bigger blow to the NYSE which, according to the Times piece, has been embroiled in a battle with the Nasdaq for the newest crop of Silicon Valley companies to hit the IPO market. While the NYSE nabbed LinkedIn and Pandora, it appears that the Nasdaq won the battle, if not the war, by getting Facebook to trade on their exchange.
NASDAQ OMX, the company which runs the Nasdaq exchange is itself a publicly traded company. Its stock (Symbol: NDAQ) is trading up 1.2% on the day, while NYSE Euronext’s (Symbol: NYX) stock is trading down 1.3 percent, as of about 3:30 EST.
Facebook is expected to IPO in May, when the company expects to raise $5 billion on a $100 billion valuation.