Imax to move its listing from Nasdaq to NYSE

The move this week by Imax, the cinema technology group, to move its listing from Nasdaq to the New York Stock Exchange is only the latest in a running rivalry between the two marketplaces.

US markets have become increasingly fragmented in the past few years, with exchanges trading smaller percentages of their listed shares.

Nasdaq and NYSE have since competed more intensely than ever to gain new listings, as well as to pull listings from each other's markets.

Technology groups such as Imax have been an especially fierce battleground, with NYSE pushing to increase its share of a segment that Nasdaq has traditionally dominated.

Though Nasdaq lists tech bellwethers such as Amazon, Google and Baidu, NYSE recently won the listings for Youku.com, the Chinese web video company, and Demand Media, the first of several hotly anticipated US web groups likely going public later this year.

However, Nasdaq has recently won IPOs in financial services, such as LPL Financial, First Republic and the Chicago Board Options Exchange, traditionally a stronghold sector for NYSE. It will also list web groups Skype and Kayak when they issue shares.

Imax cited a cluster of similar companies on the NYSE in a statement on its switch. RealD, which makes 3D film technologies, listed on the NYSE in an IPO last year. Dolby Laboratories is also listed in the NYSE.

"Our affiliation with the NYSE will provide us access to the markets we intend to reach and puts us in good company with other members of our industry," said Richard Gelfond, chief executive of Imax.

Media companies have switched the other way, too. News Corp in 2008 and DirecTV in 2007 moved from NYSE to Nasdaq.

The intense switching began six years ago, after NYSE dropped rules that made it extremely difficult to switch, and adopted a four-character stock symbology that allowed Nasdaq groups to move to NYSE without changing their tickers.

So far, roughly equal numbers of companies, about 54 according to the exchanges' figures, have switched, when moves from NYSE and NYSE Amex are totalled and compared to moves from Nasdaq.

By far the largest single move, as measured by market capitalisation, was Vodafone, the London-listed mobile telecom group, which moved its American depository receipt shares from NYSE to Nasdaq in 2009. Vodafone's current US market capitalisation is $147bn. The second biggest move was DirectTV, which has a current market capitalisation of $36bn.

One company, Charles Schwab, has switched twice, moving to Nasdaq from a dual listing in 2005 before moving its listing to only NYSE last year.

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