Un crash che cancella un'I.P.O.

Dal WSJ: BATS Withdraws IPO


BATS Global Markets just announced it has withdrawn its initial public offering. Here’s the short statement from the company:

BATS Global Markets, Inc. (“BATS”) today announced it has withdrawn its planned initial public offering (IPO), which was scheduled to close on March 28, 2012.

“Although our affected market has reopened, in the wake of today’s technical issues, which affected the trading of certain stocks, including that of BATS, we believe withdrawing the IPO is the appropriate action to take for our Company and our shareholders,” said Joe Ratterman, chairman, president and CEO of BATS Global Markets.


E ancora, dal New York Times: 

3:46 p.m. | Updated It should have been a day of celebration for BATS Global Markets.

The seven-year-old stock exchange was set to start selling its shares on the public market, marking its evolution from a tiny upstart to a serious alternative to NYSE Euronext and Nasdaq OMX.

Then disaster struck. Shortly after going public on Friday, shares of BATS were halted, after a series of technical glitches and system errors that affected trading in Apple and other companies. Several hours later, BATS pulled its public offering, a rare move for a company.

The Securities and Exchange Commission is currently looking into the technical snafus and dealing directly with exchange officials on the issues.

Even before problems emerged on Friday, investors had been wary of BATS, the third-largest exchange. BATS — founded in 2005 as an alternative to its larger rivals, Nasdaq OMX and NYSE Euronext — has experienced a decline in trading volumes this year, even as the major stock markets recovered.

In 2011, BATS posted $23.5 million in net income in 2011, a 19 percent gain from the previous year. But analysts and investors have expressed concern that lower volumes on both the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq were most likely to hurt exchange profits across the board.