Nasdaq plans to create a market for trading shares of unlisted companies in a joint venture with trading platform SharesPost, tapping into increasing investor interest in private firms.
The venture, Nasdaq Private Market, may help its main exchange capture a greater share of listings from rival NYSE Euronext when companies go public, said Josef Schuster, founder of Chicago-based financial services firm IPOX Schuster.
“NYSE was taking a lot of share away from the Nasdaq even in tech listings, so I think it’s kind of an opportunistic move,” he said.
SharesPost now lists more than 200 private companies, including Twitter, led by Dick Costolo, as well as Pinterest and Tumblr.
Nasdaq will own most of the new venture, which will be based in San Francisco and led by SharesPost founder Greg Brogger.
They hope to launch the market later this year.