Cancelled IPO “Human Error” -- Nasdaq

An IPO scheduled on Nasdaq today was accidentally killed when an employee of The NASDAQ QMX Group Inc. (NASDAQ: NDAQ) cancelled the IPO instead of re-scheduling it for later in the day as had been agreed among the exchange, the company, and the underwriter.

WhiteHorse Finance Inc. (NASDAQ: WHF) was set to offer 6.67 million shares at $15 a share. An unnamed source told Reuters, “This was a human error, this wasn’t a trading system or a computerized glitch.”

The mistake calls to mind the problems that Nasdaq had with the Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ: FB) IPO in March. Unlike the Facebook fiasco, however, no shares of WhiteHorse were issued and all orders were cancelled according to a Nasdaq spokesman.

WhiteHorse issued a press release a few minutes ago saying that the commencement of trading “has been delayed” and that the company is “awaiting confirmation from NASDAQ on a timing window to begin trading which is expected shortly.” Who knows?

Paul Ausick