They list on Nasdaq because they like to have the dealers market their firms. Well, it is good marketing too, but a different sort. Today, it is a good housekeeping seal of approval. If you list on the New York Stock Exchange you have reached the pinnacle in the United States of being a great company. It is viewed as a step up.
People list for prestige reasons for the most part.
If Nasdaq can structure itself properly, then it will become the market of choice, or if TradePoint, or Instinet, or if anybody else out there does it, they will be the winners. You are at risk of losing Intel and Microsoft and all of these companies to the premier order-driven stock exchange in the United States. Trying to design a perfect market. Going back to Bill Lupien's comment this morning, one size does not fit all. Membership organizations have at their core a lot of pieces of organizing principles that essentially look like restraints of trade to the folks in the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice.