
One other aspect of the Twitter IPO was previously reported before today, but Twitter has even gone as far to differentiate itself from the Facebook by IPO by choosing Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE: GS) to lead the offering over Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS). This was yet another unsurprising move but it was still deemed as a coup for Goldman Sachs. The Facebook IPO pricing, after-market trading, and lack of any share price support tarnished Morgan Stanley’s reputation after the Facebook debacle.
The NASDAQ OMX Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: NDAQ) has not said anything here as of yet. Frankly, all that the company would be expected to say is that NASDAQ remains the top destination for technology stocks and that it continues to win IPO listings. The electronic exchange might even make a reminder that it is simply cheaper to be listed on the NASDAQ over the NYSE.
All we would expect NYSE Euronext, Inc. (NYSE: NYX) to say that it was a highly competitive process. A winner knows when it won, and with close to a duopoly neither exchange wants to publicly get involved into a bragging match or finger-pointing game. After all, the Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG) share trading that preempted the so called “Flash Crash” is not all that long ago and the outcome of that was far worse on a systematic basis for the public than the Facebook debacle.
Twitter only said We intend to list the common stock on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “TWTR” in its filing. Our take is that this outcome was already set in stone even it had never been formalized.