Seat price on Big Board rises to $1.5M; Increase of 50%-plus since early in year.(News)

Investment News, March, 2005

Byline: Bruce Kelly NEW YORK - The price of a seat on the New York Stock Exchange hit - and held - high ground last week, rebounding sharply over its lows set in January. On Tuesday, a NYSE seat sold for $1.5 million, and another seat sold two days later for the same price. Earlier this year, seat prices had dropped to $975,000, the first time since 1995 a sale for a seat had dropped below $1 million.

NYSE seats confer trading rights. The higher seat prices may be in anticipation of changes at the exchange. "I think it reflects that there is going to be movement to a for-profit model,'' said one NYSE member, New York lawyer James Rothenberg. Changing from a non-profit has to occur before any serious moves to an initial public offering of...

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