http://www.time.com/time/business/ar...891774,00.html

One of the businesses it plans to launch soon is a futures exchange where traders can bet on the box-office success of movies. It will never be one of Cantor's biggest businesses, but it offers a lot of symbolism. The firm gained regulatory approval for the exchange a week before the Sept. 11 attack on the World Trade Center that killed 638 Cantor employees, which was headquartered on the top floors of the north tower. Cantor had to scrap the movie exchange shortly after the attack. But the firm's executives never let the idea go. A little more than a year ago, it started working on the exchange again in earnest, and hopes to have it reapproved later this year. (See photos of what happened on September 11, 2001

"The financial crisis is a great opportunity to build out our franchise," says Shawn Matthews, the chief executive of Cantor Fitzgerald & Co., the firm's investment banking subsidiary. "The dislocation in the financial markets has caused others to take the eye off the ball, allowing us to gain market share." The parent company is still headed by Howard Lutnick, who is the CEO of Cantor and chairman of a publicly traded subsidiary BGC Partners, which is 40% owned by Cantor. Lutnick was famously taking his son to his first day of kindergarten on September 11 and not in Cantor's offices when the World Trade Centers were attacked. Lutnick recently told analysts that he was optimistic for his company despite the uncertain markets, and that the evolving business models of Cantor's largest customers and competitors was an opportunity.