Full Description

The NASDAQ OMX Group, Inc. (NASDAQ OMX), is a holding company. The Company is a global exchange group that delivers trading, exchange technology, securities listing, and public company services around six continents. The Company’s offerings include trading across multiple asset classes, market data products, financial indexes, capital formation solutions, financial services and market technology products and services. The Company operates in three segments: Market services, Issuer services and Market technology. In the United States it operates The NASDAQ Stock Market, a registered national securities exchange. In Europe, it operates exchanges in Stockholm (Sweden), Copenhagen (Denmark), Helsinki (Finland), and Iceland as NASDAQ OMX Nordic and exchanges in Tallinn (Estonia), Riga (Latvia) and Vilnius (Lithuania) as NASDAQ OMX Baltic. In addition, the Company operates NASDAQ OMX Europe. In May 2009, the Company sold its 25% stake in Orc Software AB.

In January 2009, the Company acquired a 22% stake in European Multilateral Clearing Facility N.V. (EMCF), a European clearing house. In December 2008, NASDAQ OMX acquired an 81% interest in the International Derivatives Clearing Group (IDCG), and IDCG became an independently operated subsidiary of NASDAQ OMX. In November 2008, it acquired Bloom Partners, a market intelligence firm, enhancing the Company's market monitoring services.

Market Services

The Market Services segment includes United States and European Transaction Services businesses, as well as the Company’s Market data and Broker services businesses. The Company offer trading on multiple exchanges and facilities across several asset classes, including equities, derivatives, debt, commodities, structured products and exchange traded funds (ETFs). In United States it offers trading in equity securities, derivatives and ETFs on The NASDAQ Stock Market, NASDAQ OMX PHLX, NASDAQ OMX BX and NFX. The Company’s electronic United States transaction-based platform provides members with the ability to access, process, display and integrate orders and quotes on The NASDAQ Stock Market and NASDAQ OMX BX.

In United States the Company operates NFX which offers trading for currency futures and other financial futures. The Company provides market participants with several alternatives for accessing markets for a fee. The Company offers cash trading in Nordic securities such as equities and depository receipts, warrants, convertibles, rights, fund units, ETFs, bonds and other interest-related products. On NASDAQ OMX Stockholm, it offers clearing services for fixed-income options and futures, stock options and futures and index options and futures by serving as the central counterparty.

The Broker Services operations offer technology and customized securities administration solutions to financial participants in the Nordic market and in the United Kingdom. The primary services include flexible back-office systems. The Company’s services allow customers to entirely or partly outsource their company’s back-office functions. It also offers customer and account registration, business registration, clearing and settlement, corporate action handling for reconciliations and reporting to authorities, the services also include direct settlement with the Nordic central securities depositories, real-time updating and communication through the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT), to deposit banks.

Issuer Services

The Issuer Services segment includes Global Listing Services and Global Index Group businesses. Companies listed on The NASDAQ Stock Market represent a diverse array of industries including telecommunication services and information technology, financial services, healthcare, consumer products, industrials and energy. The Company provides investor relations and news distribution products designed to make it easier for companies to interact and communicate with analysts and investors while meeting corporate governance and disclosure requirements. Market Monitoring offer services that help companies monitor their stock and track peer performance. Board practice offer board member recruiting and management solutions. Under the global index group the Company develops and license NASDAQ OMX branded indexes, associated derivatives and financial products.

Market Technology

The Company provides technology solutions and partner to exchanges, alternative trading venues and clearing organizations. The systems solutions it offer support trading, clearing and settlement and information dissemination for many types of instruments, ranging from equities to complex derivative products. It also offers advisory services, facility management and systems integration and operations and support of all components included in a information technology solution for a marketplace.

The Company competes with New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) Euronext, BATS Exchange, Electronic Communications Network (ECNs), Deutsche Borse, the London Stock Exchange Group plc (LSE), the Spanish Exchanges, SIX Swiss Exchange, the Tokyo Stock Exchange, the Korea Exchange, the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, the Singapore Stock Exchange, the Shanghai Stock Exchange, the Sydney Stock Exchange, the Bombay Stock Exchange, the Sao Paolo Stock Exchange and the Toronto Stock Exchange.