April 24 (Reuters) – Nasdaq OMX Group Inc is
planning to set aside $10 million in anticipation of settling a
probe over its botched handling of Facebook Inc’s initial
public offering last year, the Wall Street Journal reported,
citing people familiar with Nasdaq internal discussions.
Nasdaq executives had been hoping for a settlement of about
$5 million, the Journal said.
The move follows months of negotiations between the U.S.
exchange operator and the Securities and Exchange Commission
(SEC), according to the paper. ()
An SEC spokesman declined to comment to the newspaper
account. Nasdaq and SEC officials could not be reached by
Reuters for comment outside of regular U.S. business hours.
Facebook’s eagerly anticipated listing on May 18, which
raised $16 billion, was initially delayed by 30 minutes due to a
technical glitch at Nasdaq.
The exchange then made the decision to get the stock trading
by using a secondary system that ended up leading to delays in
many orders and confirmations, costing some investors big losses
as the stock price dropped after an initial gain.
In March, U.S. regulators approved Nasdaq’s $62 million
compensation plan for firms that lost money in Facebook’s market
debut, far less than the $500 million in estimated losses.
In April, Nasdaq slashed the 2012 annual bonus of chief
executive Robert Greifeld by $542,100, citing the Facebook
IPO.
