Nasdaq Names New CEO and Chairman
The Nasdaq Stock Market on Tuesday picked Robert Greifeld, the 45-year-old executive vice president of SunGard Data Systems Inc., as chief executive.
He will be charged with leading Nasdaq in a period of rising competition among markets worldwide and as many investors have turned away from stocks after three years of losses.
Nasdaq, the world’s biggest electronic marketplace, also said it selected H. Furlong Baldwin, 71, as chairman. Baldwin retired in March as chairman of Baltimore-based Mercantile Bankshares Corp. and has been on Nasdaq’s board since 2000.
Greifeld and Baldwin succeed Hardwick Simmons, 62, whose two years in office have been marked by falling markets, declining fee income at Nasdaq and failed attempts to expand abroad and take Nasdaq public. The market said in December that Simmons would step down as chairman and CEO.
“Nasdaq faces significant challenges, especially in their trading businesses, but Bob has proven himself a capable executive,” said Matt Andresen, head of global trading at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., who was a candidate for Nasdaq’s CEO post.
SunGard, based in Wayne, Pa., “is known for a relentless focus on the bottom line and focuses on their shareholders. That’s just what the doctor ordered,” Andresen said.
Greifeld had been president of Automated Securities Clearance Ltd., whose chief product was the Brass electronic stock order-management system. His company was bought by SunGard in March 1999.
As chairman of the advisory committee of BRUT, an electronic communications network owned by SunGard that matches trades or routes them to other locations for execution, Greifeld has competed directly against Nasdaq’s new SuperMontage trading system.
Greifeld said Nasdaq has to work to increase its speed of trade executions and create more incentives to attract orders. “There’s a lot to work on,” he said. “If we do it right, I think an IPO will be easy.” He wouldn’t speculate on when an initial public offering might occur.
Baldwin said Greifeld was not at the top of the board’s list when it began searching for a new CEO in January. “All of a sudden we ran into this gent and he hit us between the eyes,” Baldwin said.
Nasdaq’s plan for an initial public offering, announced two years ago, has been stalled because of weak demand for IPOs and because the Securities and Exchange Commission hasn’t acted on the company’s application to register as an exchange.
The weak IPO market also has reduced stock listing fees from companies, which is one of Nasdaq’s three main revenue sources. The others are trading fees and market data sales, both of which have been dented by lower trading volume.
Last year Nasdaq had a profit of $43.1 million, a 6% rise from 2001, as it cut costs, including through job reductions.
In the fourth quarter, revenue from the market’s three business areas fell 24% from a year earlier to $183.6 million.
