Nasdaq anticipates $10 million settlement

NEW YORK, April 24 (UPI) -- Nasdaq OMX Group anticipates a $10 million settlement with U.S. regulators to end an investigation of Facebook's public debut, The Wall Street Journal reported.

The settlement would be the largest ever imposed by the Securities and Exchange Commission on a stock exchange, the Journal said.

Nasdaq had been pushing for a settlement of $5 million. But sources close to the company told the Journal the Nasdaq board has agreed to set aside $10 million to put the botched initial public offering behind it.

The first trade orders during Facebook's IPO last May were delayed for 30 minutes due to a technical error. For an additional three hours, the company failed to confirm trade orders, which left brokers uncertain on whether or not their deals had been processed.

In March, the SEC agreed to a Nasdaq plan to pay $62 million to clients who lost money during the debacle. Critics of the deal, however, said losses were closer to $500 million.

Nasdaq, in return, said they would be obligated under market rules to pay only $1 million -- the cap on liabilities for a stock exchange on trading losses -- and that the $62 million was voluntary.

Nasdaq has also created a position of chief information officer and last year hired International Business Machines Corp. to audit its technology systems, the Journal said.