The moment of what was expected to be the day of its greatest celebration became the day of its greatest humiliation.
BATS Global Markets, just shy of seven years old, was offering its stock to the public for the first time, on March 23, 2012.
On its own listing exchange. Using its own purpose-built auction process. And, when done, to be traded on its main stock exchange.
But a ‘software bug’ impaired the auction and the company withdrew its IPO.
Here is a continuing compilation of reporting by Securities Technology Monitor and Traders Magazine, tracking how the technically-driven initial public offering of stock by BATS Global Markets went wrong.
And signs that the company designed for Making Markets Better is righting itself.
BlackRock: The Only Firm Listing Shares with BATS
March 28, 2012 – The world’s largest asset manager – with $3.5 trillion under its auspices as of December 31 — still is the only firm with shares of any sort listed on the rival to the New York Stock Exchange and the Nasdaq Stock Market.
Ratterman Stays CEO, Loses Chairman Role at BATS
March 27, 2012 – Chairman, president and chief executive Joe Ratterman will no longer be chairman of the board at BATS Global Markets, after Friday’s aborted offering of stock to the public.
BATS’ Share of Trading Comes Back
March 27, 2012 – BATS Global Markets said its share of trading in U.S. and European stocks bounced back Tuesday to levels that preceded Friday’s meltdown of its attempt to auction its own shares on the BATS Exchange, domestically.
UPTICK: Code Making & Breaking
March 27, 2012 – BATS shot itself in the foot, with faulty code. But what disruptive code never gets the glare of public scrutiny?
BATS Regroups After Big Systems Glitch
March 26, 2012 – BATS Global Markets is still reeling after a trading glitch last Friday embarrassed the exchange and led to the cancellation of its initial public offering as the company began trading on its own exchange.
BATS Sticking With Tech Plan in Europe
March 26, 2012 – BATS Global Markets is sticking with a plan to move its Chi-X platform, Europe’s largest share trading venue, to its own technology. This, after a software bug forced the exchange operator to take the embarrassing step of withdrawing its initial public offering of stock Friday.
BATS’ CEO: ‘No Excuses’ For Failure
March 26, 2012 – BATS Global Markets chief executive Joe Ratterman told customers and members of its exchanges that “Friday’s failure to perform as expected has no excuses.” The firm’s technology for auctioning shares in a newly listed stock – its own – had been tested for “many weeks.”
The Humility Technical Failure Brings
March 26, 2012 – Not measuring up to the excellence expected of one’s company, even due to ‘serious technical failure,’ is humbling, CEO Joe Ratterman told customers and exchange members in the wake of BATS Global Markets’ inability to bring its own stock public.
March 23, 2012 – Its own shares. Its own exchange. Its own technology. And it can’t stage its own I.P.O.
BATS’ IMPLOSION: The Early Read
March 23, 2012 – The answers are not in. The investigations (can you spell S-E-C) have not begun. Is it even possible that BATS was hacked? No one knows. But here’s a first read on what got reported Friday on the failure of BATS to take its shares public, on its own exchange.
BATS’ POST MORTEM: A ‘Software Bug’ to Blame
March 23, 2012 – Early Friday evening, BATS Global Markets said its initial review of the problems that caused its initial public offering of its stock to crater was “a software bug realted to IPO auctions.”
March 23, 2012 – BATS Global Markets said it is withdrawing it plan to offer shares of its stock to the public.The move comes after the company’s shares failed to open for trading on the BATS Exchange Friday.
BATS Suffers Flash Crash of its Own Shares on First Day
March 23, 2012 – BATS Global Markets, which pitched itself to investors as “a technology company at our core,” suffered its own Flash Crash in the very first morning its shares traded among public shareholders. And it took down shares in the world’s most valuable company, Apple, as well.
BATS IPO Valued at More Than $100 Million
March 23, 2012 – BATS Global Markets announced on Thursday the pricing of its initial public offering, which is valued at more than $100 million. A total of 6,296,829 shares of Class A common stock will be available to the public at a price of $16 per share. A previous consensus expected shares to price between $16 and $18.
BATS Linked to SEC Probe of High-Speed Trading
March 23, 2012 – The SEC is focusing on computer-driven exchanges, including BATS Global Markets, as platforms for high-frequency trading firms to gain an unfair advantage over other investors, the Wall Street Journal said.
BATS Swings for $16 Opening Share Price
March 23, 2012 – The operator of securities markets in the United States and Europe announced pricing for its initial public offering of stock, overnight. The sale starts this morning on the BATS Exchange.
