Tag: NASDAQ

Berkshire Hathaway’s Stock Price Is Too Much for Computers

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.wsj.com/articles/berkshire-hathaways-stock-price-is-too-much-for-computers-11620168548

Excerpt:

Berkshire Hathaway Inc. is trading at more than $421,000 per Class A share, and the market is optimistic. That’s a problem.

The price has grown so high, it has nearly hit the maximum number that can be stored in one common way exchange computers handle digits.

…..

Nasdaq’s computers can only count so high because of the compact digital format they use for communicating prices. The biggest number they can handle is $429,496.7295. Nasdaq is rushing to finish an upgrade later this month that would fix the problem.

It isn’t just Nasdaq. Another exchange operator, IEX Group Inc., said in March that it would stop accepting investors’ orders in Class A shares of Berkshire Hathaway “due to an internal price limitation within the trading system.”

Author(s): Alexander Osipovich

Publication Date: 4 May 2021

Publication Site: Wall Street Journal

Diversity Quotas ‘Absolutely’ Work, Ursula Burns Says

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.ai-cio.com/news/diversity-quotas-absolutely-work-ursula-burns-says/

Excerpt:

Change will not come naturally to corporate boards without diversity quotas, according to Ursula M. Burns, the former chairman and CEO of Xerox. She was the first Black female chief executive of a Fortune 500 company. 

“I was dead set against quotas, but now I think quotas are absolutely, positively acceptable,” Burns said in a keynote panel for the California Conference for Women. “They’re the punishment that you get when you don’t do the right thing by yourself.” 

She noted how a change in the Golden State’s laws spurred the naming of female directors, in a conversation with California first partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom, who helped found gender equity nonprofit California Partners Project, directed the documentary film “Miss Representation,” and moderated the panel. Burns pointed out that public companies in California were quick to find women for their directorships when it was mandated by law in 2018, despite previously insisting that there is too little female talent in the pipeline. 

Author(s): Sarah Min

Publication Date: 5 March 2021

Publication Site: ai-CIO

Nasdaq Amends Its Diversity Plan

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.wsj.com/articles/nasdaq-amends-its-diversity-plan-11614547707

Excerpt:

We have listened closely to all the feedback, and we’re making some changes to strengthen our proposal in response. For example, we heard from companies with smaller boards, as well as from several small-cap investors, that meeting the diversity objective would be more challenging for them. As a result of that feedback, we’re now proposing that companies with five or fewer directors may satisfy the recommended objective with one director from a diverse background rather than two. We’re also providing a one-year grace period in the event a vacancy on the board brings a company under the recommended diversity objective.

Overall, our proposal seeks to demonstrate that, with proper disclosure and clear objectives, companies and investors can create momentum toward an approach to capitalism that offers more opportunity to more people. We believe this can be accomplished through a market-driven solution — rather than government intervention.

Author(s): Adena T. Friedman, president and CEO of Nasdaq Inc.

Publication Date: 28 February 2021

Publication Site: Wall Street Journal

Senate Republicans oppose Nasdaq diversity rule

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.pionline.com/governance/senate-republicans-oppose-nasdaq-diversity-rule

Excerpt:

Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., was among a group of Republicans calling on the SEC to reject Nasdaq’s board diversity proposal.

Republican members of the Senate Banking Committee told the Securities and Exchange Commission to reject a Nasdaq proposal allowing it to require listed companies to publicly disclose the gender and racial diversity of their boards and eventually to have at least two diverse directors, citing a connection between diverse boards and corporate performance.

Author(s): HAZEL BRADFORD

Publication Date: 12 February 2021

Publication Site: Pensions & Investments