Nasdaq Chairman Simmons to Step Down

Nasdaq Stock Market Chairman and Chief Executive Hardwick Simmons plans to leave the second-largest U.S. stock market when his three-year contract expires at the end of 2003, Nasdaq said Friday.

The market said it will start looking for a successor in the second quarter of next year. Once a replacement is named, Simmons, 61, will become non-executive chairman until the end of his contract, Nasdaq said.

The New York Post reported Friday that Nasdaq’s board would ask for Simmons’ resignation.

Nasdaq spokeswoman Bethany Sherman said, “The statement speaks for itself,” and declined to comment further.

Nasdaq’s image has suffered over the last two years with the collapse of many technology shares. The company repeatedly has delayed plans to go public.

“Most of Nasdaq’s troubles are external to management,” Georgetown University finance professor James Angel said. “The best manager in the world couldn’t have prevented a fall in the [market] as a result of the Internet bubble” bursting.

Simmons, who had headed Prudential Securities Inc., replaced Frank Zarb in February 2001 at Nasdaq’s helm.

Simmons said in October that Nasdaq was again postponing plans to launch an initial public offering of its stock until the second quarter of next year at the earliest.