BATS withdraws its IPO following technical glitches

NEW YORK – It was hardly the stock market debut BATS Global Markets was hoping for.

Since being founded nearly seven years ago, the Kansas-based company has been doing battle with its much larger rivals Nasdaq and the New York Stock Exchange for a piece of the stock trading business. On Thursday night the initial public offering of its own stock priced at $16, the low end of what the company had originally predicted.

Shortly after starting to trade, the share price plunged to just pennies before being halted. By late Friday afternoon, BATS withdrew its public offering and said it had no plans to refile its IPO. All trades made that day would be canceled.

There was more bad news. Apple Inc.’s stock was temporarily halted following a faulty trade on BATS’ systems. BATS also suspended trading of all stocks whose ticker symbols began with A through BF, though it restored that trading by early afternoon.

BATS is one of several dozen companies that offer high-speed, low-cost electronic stock trading as an alternative to the NYSE and Nasdaq. It’s the third-largest exchange in the country behind NYSE and Nasdaq.