SunGard Data Switching Stock To Big Board

SunGard Data Systems Inc. said it would move its stock from Nasdaq to the New York Stock Exchange in early June.

The Wayne, Pa., computer services company specializes in disaster recovery and investment systems.

Michael J. Ruane, treasurer and chief financial officer, said the SunGard board desired the "prestige element" of the larger exchange.

The move is expensive, he said, "but worth it," giving Sungard "better visibility in the foreign marketplace ... "We increasingly are an international company."

Non-U.S. sales accounted for more than 10% of Sungard's 1996 revenue of $670 million.

Mr. Ruane said the switch would also reduce the volatility in Sungard's stock, a reason companies often give for leaving Nasdaq.

Nasdaq has 5,556 companies, up from about 5,400 a year ago. Spokesman Reid Walker said 14 companies left for the Big Board in the first quarter of this year, down from 17 a year earlier.

Mr. Walker noted that such movements are a "one-way street" because the New York Stock Exchange's rules make it hard for companies to leave.

He also said Nasdaq instituted rule changes that have narrowed the spread between bid and ask prices by about 30%, thus reducing the volatility often associated with Nasdaq stocks.

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