May 2 (Bloomberg) -- NYSE Euronext, owner of the world's biggest equity market, said companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange will get discounts on press-release distribution through an agreement with Warren Buffett's Business Wire.

The almost 2,700 companies whose shares trade on the Big Board will be able to convert public statements into regulatory filings for free and have access to ``incentive'' prices on other services provided by Business Wire, a unit of Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc., the exchange said today. The agreement offers a challenge to Nasdaq Stock Market Inc., which entered the press release business seven months ago with the purchase of Prime Newswire.

The new rivalry reflects the intensity of competition for stock listings, which account for about a sixth of revenue at NYSE Euronext and Nasdaq, both based in New York. Nasdaq has tried to lure companies away from listing on the NYSE by offering access to press-release distribution as well as brokerage services for executive insurance.

``We both serve thousands of publicly traded companies and we share joint clients, so the motivation was to be able to provide more enhanced services,'' Cathy Baron Tamraz, chief executive officer of Business Wire, said in an interview. ``This has been a long-standing relationship and the agreement is just the natural evolution of that.''

Business Wire last year asked regulators to prevent Nasdaq from distributing press releases as part of a listings package. To gain approval, Nasdaq had to amend its plan and offer the services separately to companies that signed up on its Web site.

Nasdaq has succeeded in selling distribution on Prime Newswire to companies that remain listed on the NYSE. Publisher Dow Jones & Co., which last used Business Wire in February, is one such customer.

To contact the reporter on this story: Edgar Ortega in New York at ebarrales@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: May 2, 2007 19:06 EDT