type stock exchange location lenexa kansas united states founded june 2005 owner bats global markets inc. key people president and ceo chris concannon ; 1 2 chairman paul atkins 1 currency united states dollar volume 1b shares jan 2009 indices bats withdrawn website www.bats.com bats global markets is a global stock exchange operator based in lenexa kansas with additional offices in london new york chicago and singapore . bats was founded in june 2005 became operator of a licensed u.s. stock exchange in 2008 and opened its pan european stock market in october 2008 . as of february 2016 it operates four u.s. stock exchanges two u.s. equity options exchanges the pan european stock market and a global market for the trading of foreign exchange products . contents 1 history 1.1 european expansion 1.2 initial public offering 1.3 system issue 1.4 acquisition by cboe 2 operations 2.1 united states 2.2 europe 3 notable officers 4 see also 5 references 6 external links history edit the company was founded in june 2005 by david cummings a computer programmer . cummings said he was inspired to start the company after observing archipelago holdings be acquired by the new york stock exchange and instinet be acquired by nasdaq within a week of each other in 2005 . after the launch of bats other brokerage firms hedge funds and other clients became involved with the company . cummings publicized the bats service by sending emails to companies highlighting the niche that could be carved out by trading on platforms other than the big two nasdaq and nyse . 3 the niche that he sought for the company was for it to be a neutral private broker dealer owned semi profitable utility with no party owning more than 20 percent . 4 he noted that the consolidation of the new york stock exchange and nasdaq eliminated competition and they raised prices for their services . the bats system was intended to charge less . 5 among the items it did to draw customers was to offer free listings to companies with shares that traded a certain amount each day . 6 cummings stepped down in 2007 and was replaced by joe ratterman who had been associated with the company from the start . cummings said in his resignation as bats prepares to become an exchange my ownership of a broker dealer precludes me from serving in management . cummings returned to his position as ceo at tradebot . 4 7 european expansion edit under the leadership of joe ratterman in march 2008 bats entered the european equities markets by establishing a multilateral trading facility mtf to compete on a pan european basis against the incumbent securities exchanges . bats europe was formally launched in october 2008 . 8 9 in february 2011 bats global markets agreed to buy chi x europe a competitor and largest pan european mtf at the time for 300 million . the deal was referred by the office of fair trading to the competition commission in june 2011 for further investigation to determine whether a substantial lessening of competition is probable as a result of the anticipated merger . however the competition commission approved the transaction in late november 2011 leading to bats closing the deal on 30 november 2011 . in april 2011 bats global markets confirmed that mark hemsley ceo of bats europe will be appointed ceo of the combined entity following bats acquisition of chi x europe . by april 2012 the technology integration between the two platforms was complete and chi x europe customers were migrated onto the bats europe platform . 10 11 12 13 14 initial public offering edit the company attempted to go public on march 23 2012 as the first listing on its own exchange but later withdrew the ipo the same day due to a disastrous glitch in the company s trading systems . the glitch resulted in bats stock price falling from the original 16 offering price to as low as 4 a share . three erroneous apple trades on the bats exchange triggered a circuit breaker which temporarily halted trading in that stock . those trades were later canceled . bats halted stocks on its exchange that were affected by the glitch and included stocks with ticker symbols beginning with letters a to bfzzz . it later reopened trading in the affected symbols but decided to withdraw the bats stock offering . 15 16 17 following the failed ipo the bats board of directors decided to separate the roles of chairman and ceo . joe ratterman had previously held both roles . ratterman received the unanimous support of the directors to keep the positions of ceo and president . 18 in july 2012 bats named paul atkins a former u.s. securities and exchange commissioner to the role of non executive chairman of its board of directors . 19 system issue edit in january 2013 bats admitted that what it called a system issue had generated problems with more than 400 000 trades going back as far as 2008 . specifically it admitted that prices had been executed that were equal to or less than the so called national best bid and offer price in violation of reg nms . 20 acquisition by cboe edit in september 2016 it was announced that bats was to be acquired by cboe in early 2017 and will pay about us 3.2 billion for it . 21 operations edit united states edit in the united states bats operates two stock exchanges the bzx exchange and the byx exchange the bats exchanges which as of 2012 accounted for about 10 12 % of all u.s. equity trading on a daily basis . 22 23 bzx and byx are different chiefly because of their pricing structure and the bzx is almost four times bigger than the byx . 24 bats is the third largest stock exchange operator in the united states . 25 in november 2008 bats converted its ecn to a national securities exchange bzx which allowed bats to participate in and earn market data fees from the united states consolidated tape plans reduce its clearing costs and operate a primary listings business . in february 2010 bats expanded into a new asset class by offering trading of listed equity options on bzx . in october 2010 bats launched byx a second national securities exchange for trading listed cash equity securities . bats launched a primary listings business in the united states on its bzx exchange in december 2010 and launched its first listings of seven etfs in january 2012 . 8 with byx bats offered a different pricing model than its larger market bzx . 26 europe edit bats entered the european equities markets in 2008 with the launch of bats europe a pan european multilateral trading facility mtf . 9 in 2011 it acquired chi x europe a competitor and largest pan european mtf at the time this was merged with bats europe . 14 notable officers edit eric swanson is senior vice president general counsel and secretary . he joined as general counsel in january 2008 . 27 in 2014 company president william o brien disputed assertions in the book flash boys a wall street revolt . he was quoted in the new york times as saying about the book s author michael lewis clearly has a blind side as we ve just discovered . o brien was referring to a previous work by the journalist the paper reported . 28 o brien s twitter account was active 29 and he engaged in a heated debate on live tv with lewis on cnbc 30 in the first days of the book s release and after an appearance by lewis on 60 minutes . 31 in the exchange with lewis and iex ceo brad katsuyama he denied that direct edge used low speed data sources for public pricing of trades a point katsuyama noted would support his own assertion that markets such as direct edge were structured to favor high frequency traders . o brien s denial was false and he was publicly told to retract it by the new york district attorney . 32 he left the company soon after . 33 see also edit direct edge references edit a b tom steinert threlkeld 2012 07 17 . bats names former sec commissioner as chairman . securitiestechnologymonitor.com . retrieved 2012 08 29 . management batstrading.com . retrieved 2014 04 01 . bats trading ceo cummings likes being the catalyst kansas city business journal . bizjournals.com . retrieved 2012 03 27 . a b massaro kerry 2007 06 29 . dave cummings steps down as bats ceo prez . advanced trading . archived from the original on 3 february 2010 . retrieved 2012 03 27 . grant justin . dave cummings market maker . advanced trading . archived from the original on 2011 12 30 . retrieved 2016 02 19 . bats founder says exchange should renew ipo in 2q . cbs news . retrieved 2012 03 27 . dead link spicer jonathan . bats founder pushes for ipo despite freak glitch yahoo news . news.yahoo.com . archived from the original on march 27 2012 . retrieved 2012 03 27 . a b amendment 5 to s 1 . sec.gov . retrieved 2012 09 06 . a b us trading system bats to open european platform . reuters . 2008 03 31 . retrieved 2012 09 06 . bats wins final approval to buy chi x europe . efinancialnews.com . retrieved 2012 09 06 . bats tries to reboot its ipo . institutional investor . 2012 05 09 . retrieved 2012 09 06 . bats europe ceo to run bats chi x haynes departs . reuters . retrieved 2012 09 06 . schmerken ivy 2012 05 01 . bats europe completes tech migration of chi ex wall street & technology . wallstreetandtech.com . retrieved 2012 09 06 . a b jeffs luke . bats wins regulatory support to buy chi x europe . reuters . retrieved 2012 09 06 . olivia oran ; jonathan spicer ; chuck mikolajczak ; carrick mollenkamp 23 march 2012 . bats exchange withdraws ipo after stumbles . reuters . retrieved 24 march 2012 . bremner brian 23 march 2012 . the bats affair when machines humiliate their masters . bloomberg businessweek . retrieved 24 march 2012 . rooney ben 23 march 2012 . bats global market shares are halted after ipo bats well this is awkward . cnn . cnnmoney.com . retrieved 24 march 2012 . mehta nina . bats ceo cedes chairman role as board said to delay ipo . bloomberg . retrieved 2012 09 06 . bats appoints ex sec commissioner as non executive chairman . reuters . retrieved 2012 09 06 . schmerken ivy 10 january 2013 . another technical issue from bats rattles confidence . advanced trading . retrieved 15 january 2013 . cboe will acquire bats global markets for 3.2 billion . fortune.com . 26 september 2016 . retrieved 27 september 2016 . bats global markets . bats global markets . 2012 07 03 . retrieved 2012 08 29 . bats chi x europe . batstrading.co.uk . retrieved 2012 08 29 . bats exchange . batstrading.com . retrieved 2012 08 14 . mclaughlin tim 2012 03 23 . bats core business solid future growth uncertain . reuters . retrieved 2012 03 27 . peter chapman & james ramage 2010 11 24 . exchanges sharpen their offerings . tradersmagazine.com . retrieved 2012 09 06 . bats exchange management team . bats trading . september 11 2001 . retrieved february 15 2013 . merced michael de la and william alden scrutiny for wall street s warp speed new york times march 31 2014 . retrieved 2014 04 01 . william o brien twitter . retrieved 2014 04 01 . patel sital s. epic debate on high frequency trading between michael lewis brad katsuyama and william o