Finance History|Nasdaq MarketSite — Ten Dollars for a Dun and Bradstreet Software Shop

People treat Cognizant as a Teaneck technology house that always printed CTSH on its own.

The 1998 issuer was still majority-owned by Cognizant Corporation, the Dun and Bradstreet successor that later became IMS Health.

The prospectus dated 19 June 1998 offered 2,917,000 Class A shares at 10 dollars each, 2,500,000 from the company and 417,000 from the parent.

Gross proceeds at that price were 29,170,000 dollars in 1998 currency before the option.

A subsequent quarterly filing said the sale was consummated on 24 June 1998 and that net proceeds to the company were about 22.4 million dollars after expenses.

About 6.6 million dollars of that cash repaid advances from the parent, including the 3.4 million dollars paid in 1997 for the remaining 24 percent of the Indian subsidiary.

The Class A line was approved for the Nasdaq National Market under CTSH.

At year-end 1998 the parent still held about 61.7 percent of the stock and about 94.2 percent of the combined voting power through a dual-class book.

The mechanism is a controlled carve-out. The information-services parent sold a primary-and-secondary Class A minority while keeping the vote.

Holders who wanted media measurement stayed in the parent. Holders who wanted the India-plus-onshore delivery shop bought CTSH.

The pin is the public facade of Nasdaq MarketSite at 4 Times Square, the later face of the electronic market that still prints CTSH. Interior studios are not a visitor floor.

Photo: Luca Marfe, June 2015, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Nasdaq MarketSite.