Nasdaq-Amex, the US technology-laden stock exchange, says it has no plans to cash in on the enormous popularity of the Nasdaq- amex.com web site, even though member companies such as Yahoo!, GeoCities and Excite are commanding huge valuations. That, however, does not rule out plans for Nasdaq to exploit its six main web sites to forge closer links with internet investors, it says. Nasdaq-Amex.com claims to be the second most popular financial web site in the US, recording a daily average page views of 14 million, and reaching peaks of 20 million a day. In theory, the web site could be worth somewhere between $5bn to $10bn, on the basis of recent valuations. But John Wall, the president of Nasdaq International, said Nasdaq would concentrate on its core business of linking companies and capital. We’re most concerned with web [stock] executions, rather than with the hits. We are interested in where the capital comes from. He said that at some point in the future, Nasdaq will probably spin its six web sites off as a separate business, although he was vague about future plans beyond that.
