Robert Greifeld on IPO listing criteria
From Robert Greifeld on the SpaceX IPO: A Massive Mistake? · · Stockology Insider
“If it was 2006 and I was in charge and they came to me and said, 'We have this company. This company is going to raise $75 billion, right? Certainly an adequate amount of float and probably more importantly this company has been operating for 24 years has over 10,000 in investors who have invested in this and they said should we have a rule set that allow this company to be included in our index?' I would have taken the position that we'd be wrong not to get this company in the index, you know, as soon as reasonably possible.”
On , Robert Greifeld, Former Chairman & Chief Executive Officer at Nasdaq, Inc., spoke about IPO listing criteria during Robert Greifeld on the SpaceX IPO: A Massive Mistake? on Stockology Insider.
About Robert Greifeld
Robert Greifeld, former Nasdaq chairman and CEO, appeared on CNBC's "Squawk Box" on May 27, 2026 to discuss the upcoming SpaceX initial public offering. He argued that a company seeking to raise $75 billion with a 24-year operating history and over 10,000 investors should be included in market indexes "as soon as reasonably possible." Regarding concerns that index inclusion could artificially inflate the stock price, he said the effect would be "marginal" and "not going to be the driver of the stock's price." He described the difference between private and public information disclosure as "astounding" and stated that retail investors "will be better served" by having more information available through public markets, encouraging them to use it. Greifeld also discussed metrics for evaluating the market's quality after the IPO, saying that observers should judge it by the spread—the transaction cost—and by whether the stock has deep liquidity rather than being thinly traded by a single investor. He noted that the public market's function is to allow "all buyers and sellers come together to discover price." Separately, in a podcast appearance from 2019, Greifeld discussed his approach to leadership when he took over Nasdaq in 2003, recalling that he fired two direct reports on his first day, describing the move as "quite autocratic" but "the right answer for that particular point in time."