NYSE Votes to Go Public

Seat holders on the New York Stock Exchange yesterday overwhelmingly voted to approve a merger with electronic exchange Archipelago, as reported in USA Today. Owners of the NYSE’s 1,366 seats will surrender them in exchange for shares in a new corporation, NYSE Group.

Earlier Tuesday, Archipelago shareholders also approved the merger.

A seat on the exchange currently goes for $4 million.

The vote is part of a larger trend in the exchange marketplace.

Over the past year, shares in the NYSE’s chief competitor, Nasdaq, have soared. In the past year, Nasdaq stock has gone from less than $7 to its current $40.26, and shares in the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and the Toronto Stock Exchange, which also went public in recent years, have outperformed the market as well.

–David Rosenbaum