DealerTrack executive will ring Nasdaq opening bell

An executive from DealerTrack Holdings Inc., the Lake Success-based car dealership software company, gets a chance to ring the opening bell Wednsday at the Nasdaq headquarters, at Times Square in Manhattan.

DealerTrack chief financial officer Eric Jacobs will do the honors at the stock exchange.

The Nasdaq's "epicenter" building is called MarketSite. "Each day MarketSite hosts some of the world's most prestigious business leaders to preside over the Market Open at MarketSite Tower," the exchange says.

"...This high-tech electronic display wraps around the cylindrical Nasdaq building, providing up-to-the-minute financial news, market highlights, and advertisements," the exchange says. "The MarketSite Tower is featured in films, television programming, and news articles. This modern day icon soars 7 stories high and illuminates Times Square 24 hours a day."

The name Nasdaq stands for National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations -- but the exchange now downplays its original mission, saying it is now, simply, a stock exchange.

DealerTrack in March said it had reached a milestone -- it had 1,000 lenders in its credit application network. In 2001, the company reported five lenders.

DealerTrack Holdings, publicly traded on the Nasdaq, works with 17,000 car dealers nationwide to provide software for inventory management, sales leads, car-buyer financing requests and other data.

Dealers use the credit application network to electronically submit customers' credit applications to a range of major and regional banks, finance companies and credit unions.