Facebook reportedly has chosen to list its shares on the NASDAQ, after having been wooed for months (if not longer) by both NASDAQ and rival exchange NYSE.
To many, this likely sounds like a no-brainer. NASDAQ has built its franchise on technology companies, and almost all of the Internet’s first generation ended up there. Over the past couple of years, however, the NYSE has been making significant inroads, particularly as it tries to offer more and more of the supplemental services that NASDAQ has featured for years.
Just take a look at the following chart, which tracks new listings of venture capital-backed information technology companies.
That’s right: More VC-backed tech companies have gone public on the NYSE in 2012 than on the NASDAQ. And that discrepancy would be even larger if Thomson Reuters included Yelp (YELP) in its figures — but it gets excluded due to a later-stage private equity investment from Elevation Partners (my guess is that changes, since Elevation also invested in Facebook).
There’s a decent chance that Facebook may have a bit of halo affect on NASDAQ for future tech issuers, but just last year we saw LinkedIn (LNKD) pick NYSE while both Groupon (GRPN) and Zynga (ZNGA) stayed more “traditional.” In other words, not everyone follows the pack.
So a bad day for NYSE, but certainly not the end of its new listings year.