Nasdaq on hook for $42M in Facebook mess

After 17 months, Bob Greifeld’s Nasdaq OMX is one step closer to moving past its Facebook IPO nightmare.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority has determined that broker-dealers claiming sizeable losses related to the botched May 18, 2012, public stock sale of Facebook are owed nearly $42 million.

Finra, which is administering the plan, is giving interested parties seven days to agree to the offer and 14 days to submit in writing that they’ll waive any additional lawsuits against Nasdaq.

The compensation plan, released Friday, is tied to a litany of technical glitches stemming from Facebook’s notorious initial public offering. Many brokers purchasing shares on behalf of clients claim they lost hundreds of millions of dollars due to Nasdaq systems going haywire.

The amount in the Finra plan is $20 million less than Nasdaq’s original offer of $62 million, because certain parties either didn’t participate or didn’t qualify to get money.

For example, UBS, the lone holdout to Nasdaq’s pay plan, is still in litigation over the glitch-ridden stock offering. The Swiss bank had claimed that it suffered more than $350 million in losses from the IPO.

Finra also claims that certain parties shouldn’t be awarded compensation because they “didn’t satisfy certain requirements,” according to documents related to the regulator’s assessment of claims.

Just five months ago, the Securities and Exchange Commission made an example of Nasdaq, doling out a $10 million punishment related to the Facebook fiasco — the largest fine of an exchange ever.

Pain from the botched Facebook offering has lingered as Nasdaq lost the plum Twitter IPO listing to rival New York Stock Exchange because of the 2012 snafu, according to sources familiar with the Twitter decision.

Representatives at Finra and Nasdaq declined to comment.