Washington, June 12 (ANI): Nasdaq CEO Robert Greifeld was unaware of the technical glitches that hit his exchange during Facebook's IPO on May 18 because he was flying back to New York and was not reachable at that moment, according to a report.
Greifeld, who was convinced the Facebook's stock market floatation was ok, got on a long haul flight, midway through the fiasco.
At Facebook's HQ in Menlo Park, California, Greifeld told one reporter the firm was 'well-prepared' to start trading.
According to a Wall Street Journal report, at 12.14 Eastern time he boarded a flight bound for New York in the mistaken belief that the initial problems would be solved promptly, whereas in fact they were just beginning.
With no Internet connection and no working phone he missed a call from Mary Schapiro, head of the Securities and Exchange Commission, demanding to know what had happened.
Greifeld only realised the extent of the problems when he landed, The Daily Mail reports.
The Journal said that Schapiro deemed the problem so serious that she even compared it to the 'Flash Crash' in 2010.
She made the comparison because the Dow Industrial Average plunged over 600 points in just five minutes following Facebook's floatation. (ANI)
