Nasdaq Posts Loss, Sees Continuing Competition

A bit of bloom came back to the Nasdaq Stock Market's rose in the fourth quarter, when revenue ticked up versus the year ago. But the market, which hopes to hold an initial public offering at the end of 2002, expects increasing competition from other exchanges in the year ahead.

The Nasdaq on Thursday reported a loss for the fourth quarter of 12 cents a share, a far cry from the 9-cent profit it made in the year-ago quarter. Excluding one-time after-tax adjustments totaling $21.9 million, related to its office relocation and a recent separation from parent company the National Association of Securities Dealers, the stock market reported net income for the quarter of $8.6 million. That's 20% below the year-ago quarter's $10.7 million, but it's up from the third-quarter total of $7.9 million.

Fourth-quarter revenue rose 1.9% to $215.5 million, primarily due to increased demand for market information services. ...