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Marriott Moving Its $12B Biz To NASDAQ From NYSE

This article is more than 10 years old.

Hotel giant Marriott International has found a new home to trade its shares.

The Bethesda, MD company said today it's decided to transfer the listing of its common stock to the NASDAQ exchange from the New York Stock Exchange.

The move is expected to take effect on Oct 21 and the company will keep its same ticker, MAR.

Marriott's CFO says the move is about cost.

"We believe this will provide us with cost-effective visibility, as well as efficient access to a portfolio of tools and opportunities to reach investors,” said Carl Berquist, Marriott’s executive vice president and chief financial officer.

Marriott, which operates over 3,800 hotel properties and reported nearly $12 billlion in revenue in 2012. Last year the company brought on Arne Sorenson as CEO after chairman Bill Marriott stepped down from the post. Sorenson has been busy building the hotel's brands out in Asia while wooing millinials at home and abroad.

He's is also changing the way Marriott makes decisions by putting more power in the hands of executives around the world rather than funneling all decisions to the company's Bethesda headquarters. In an interview with Forbes earlier this year Sorenson said, “For decades, we’ve been a standards-driven--sometimes detailed-standards driven—company. But we’ve got to relearn our instincts and impulses."

Most of Marriott's pubic competitors trade on the New York Stock exchange including Barry Sternlicht's Starwood Hotel & Resorts, Hyatt Hotels, InterContinental Hotels Group.

Rival Hilton Worldwide filed to go public in September but there's no word yet where its owner, Blackstone, plans to trade its shares.