There’s no retweet, no surrender for Bob Greifeld.
Despite the apparent long odds against Nasdaq landing the much-coveted Twitter listing, CEO Greifeld was spotted at the micro-blogging company’s headquarters Friday about to make his pitch.
The exchange boss was apparently armed with stats about how listing with Nasdaq would keep Twitter among its peer group and how much better for the tech company Nasdaq’s services would be compared to the rival New York Stock Exchange.
Twitter execs, including CFO Mike Gupta, have made it clear they are leading toward a Big Board listing in part because of the embarrassing stumble Facebook had coming out of the gate during its May 2012 Nasdaq IPO, Wall Street insiders and people close to Twitter have said.
Greifeld has described his chances at being successful in courting “Twitter” as an “uphill battle,” sources said.
However, the hard-charging exchange operator believes that he still has a fighting chance to score the social media blogging despite the general view that NYSE has a leg up on winning the Twitter tweetstakes.
Exchanges often offer co-branding/marketing opportunities to their listing clients such as allowing them to ring the opening bell at their exchanges.
Exchange operators like NYSE and Nasdaq also take out TV ads and offer other advertising space to prospective listing clients.
Greifeld believes that one of his biggest advantages in luring Twitter from NYSE is that the Manhattan-based tech-laden exchange at 4 Times Square boasts a huge digital scrolling ticker and news feed at its headquarters that he feels plays very well into Twitter’s consumer-focused media brand.
That initial public offering badly tarnished Nasdaq and Greifeld’s reputation because it was riddled with glitches at the launch of the Facebook’s stock.