Of the 23 IPOs in the third quarter that were eligible to list on The NASDAQ Global Select Market(r) - which has the highest initial listing standards in the world - The NASDAQ Global Market(r), or any listing market of the NYSE Group, sixty-one percent chose to list on NASDAQ.
Notable listings in the third quarter included the IPOs of SemGroup Energy Partners, L.P. (Nasdaq:SGLP), Beneficial Mutual Bancorp, Inc. (Nasdaq:BNCL) and Masimo Corporation (Nasdaq:MASI) and the switches from the American Stock Exchange (Amex) of PowerSecure International, Inc. (Nasdaq:POWR) and Westfield Financial, Inc. (Nasdaq:WFD). NASDAQ also saw several notable industrial listings, including the IPOs of Rex Energy Corporation (Nasdaq:REXX) and Horsehead Holding Corporation (Nasdaq:ZINC).
NASDAQ saw fifteen non-U.S. new listings in the third quarter, including the IPOs of Argentinean internet commerce company MercadoLibre, Inc. (Nasdaq:MELI), Chinese gaming company Perfect World Co., Ltd. (Nasdaq:PWRD) and Greek shipping company Paragon Shipping, Inc. (Nasdaq:PRGN).
Of the ten companies that switched from the Amex, six elected to retain their three-character symbols. This was made possible by the Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) approval of a NASDAQ proposal in July 2007 to allow NASDAQ to accept three-character ticker symbols - in addition to the four-character symbols NASDAQ has historically used.
Below is a list of the Amex companies that switched to NASDAQ in the third quarter: