Nasdaq Private Stock Sales Due in Early 2000

The Nasdaq Stock Market expects to start a private placement of its stock by the first quarter of next year, in the first phase of its conversion to a for-profit company, National Assn. of Securities Dealers Chairman Frank Zarb said.

The NASD, which owns Nasdaq, plans to make two private sales of stock to brokerages, companies and institutional investors, Zarb said. The placements, along with a possible initial public offering of Nasdaq stock, are intended to raise about $1 billion to help fund NASD’s broker-regulatory unit, he said.

Zarb discussed some details of the plan, which still is being developed, as the NASD board prepares to meet today to consider new steps in the market’s transformation.

“We want to move very deliberately, very systematically, to do this right, and we won’t be rushed,” Zarb said in an interview.