Boston Stock Exchange Closing Electronic Stock Exchange

The Boston Stock Exchange (The "BSE") has announced that it has discontinued the operations of the Boston Equities Exchange ("BeX"), whch is the exchange’s electronic stock exchange launched in August 2005. The BSE claims that it will continue to be active in the marketplace and will support its remaining ventures including the regulation of the Boston Options Exchange (BOX).  BeX is one of several ventures launched by the BSE over the past three years.

While this venture struggled to gain market share in large part due to the overall strength of market incumbents, the BSE claims that the other ventures have continued to be successful. The BSE says that LeveL, its dark-book alternative trading system, which was originally incubated by the BSE, is experiencing dramatic growth and plans to expand its operations.

“We are disappointed that BeX was not able to become competitive in today’s marketplace and perform as well as other ventures of the Boston Stock Exchange, but we want to emphasize that the BSE remains a committed member of the National Market System,” said Boston Stock Exchange Chairman and CEO, Michael Curran.

The Boston Stock Exchange and the various ventures have a total of approximately 100 employees and this cessation will affect approximately forty employees: some will be reassigned to other ventures, some will remain on through the transition and those whose positions were eliminated will receive severance packages.

As the exchange wars heat up and as the competition gets more fierce, these regional players have to focus on their strengths rather than bringing on wider areas for a broader scope where they are outgunned from day one.  Speaking of which, where is that darned American Stock Exchange IPO?

Jon C. Ogg
September 5, 2007

Jon Ogg can be reached at [email protected]; he produces the Special Situation Investing Newsletter and he does not own securities in the companies he covers.