Nasdaq board to examine IPO

Nasdaq board to examine IPO

BOMBAY (Reuters): The U.S. Nasdaq stockmarket has set up a
board committee to examine plans for an initial public offering
and expects a decision later this year, Nasdaq vice chairman
Alfred R Berkeley told Reuters Television on Friday.

"We have appointed a committee of the board to examine the
issue and I expect they would be back with a report later this
year, maybe as early as fall," Berkeley, in Bombay to attend the
Indian software industry's annual conference, said in an
interview.

Speculation that Nasdaq will follow the lead set by two
leading European exchanges and list its shares has mounted in
recent weeks. Nasdaq is the second-largest U.S. stockmarket after
the New York Stock Exchange.

Deutsche Boerse, the German stock exchange operator, listed
its shares last Monday through an issue that raised almost one
billion euros, while Euronext, the merged entity combining the
Amsterdam, Brussels and Paris bourses, plans an initial public
offering (IPO) of shares in May.