Full Description

NYSE Euronext is a diverse exchange group. The Company offers a range of products and services in cash equities, futures, options, swaps, exchange-traded products, bonds, market data, and commercial technology solutions, all designed to meet the evolving needs of issuers, investors, financial institutions and market participants. The Company is also a liquid equities exchange group. The Company operates in a range of markets, which include New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), Euronext, NYSE Liffe, NYSE Arca, NYSE Alternext, NYSE Amex and NYSE Liffe US. In addition to its markets, through NYSE Technologies (NYXT), the Company operates a globally distributed connectivity network that supports trading on its markets, and also provides trading and information technology solutions to third-party financial markets and other financial institutions. In October 2009, Thomson Reuters Corporation acquired Hugin Group BV from NYSE Euronext.

In October 2008, the Company announced that it has completed its acquisition of the American Stock Exchange (Amex). In August 2008, Atos Origin SA and NYSE Euronext announced the completion of their transaction, in which NYSE Euronext acquired the 50% stake in Atos Euronext Market Solutions (AEMS) owned by Atos Origin SA, and Atos Origin SA acquired AEMS’s third-party clearing and settlement and capital markets businesses. In January 2008, the Company launched NYSE MatchPoint, an electronic equity trading facility that matches aggregated orders. On March 7, 2008, NYSE Euronext completed the acquisition of Wombat Financial Software, Inc. (Wombat). In June 2008, it agreed to acquire a 25% ownership interest in the Doha Securities Market.

In October 2008, NYSE Liffe entered into a clearing relationship agreement with LCH.Clearnet Ltd. (LCH.Clearnet). Under the agreement, the London market of NYSE Liffe will become central counterparty to trades on its market and will outsource certain services to LCH.Clearnet in an arrangement known as NYSE Liffe Clearing (formerly known as LiffeClear). In December 2008, NYSE Liffe, through its Bclear service, became the first exchange to offer clearing of CDS contracts. In September 2008, it expanded its United States derivatives business by launching a futures exchange in the United States, NYSE Liffe US, with the acquisition of the precious metals franchise of the CME Group.

NYXT offers the global securities marketplace a comprehensive technology platform, including exchange trading platforms, participant access technologies for electronic trading, and market data management and distribution. NYXT also operates the Secure Financial Transaction Infrastructure (SFTI) network, a physical network infrastructure that connects its markets and other major market centers with more than 1,000 market participants in the United States and Europe. In January 2009, it launched the New York Block Exchange through a joint venture with BIDS Holdings, L.P.

Order Execution

The Company provides multiple marketplaces for investors, broker-dealers and other market participants to meet directly to buy and sell cash equities, fixed income securities, exchange traded products (ETPs) and a range of derivative products. In the United States, the Company offer cash trading in equity securities, fixed income securities and ETPs on the NYSE, NYSE Arca and NYSE Amex. The Company is able to offer its customers the option of using either auction trading with a floor-based component or electronic trading. The NYSE and NYSE Amex markets combine both auction-based and electronic trading capabilities.

Designated Market Makers (DMMs) on the trading floor are charged with maintaining fair, orderly and continuous two-way trading markets by bringing buyers and sellers together and, in the relative absence of orders to buy or sell their assigned stock, adding liquidity by buying and selling the assigned stock for their own accounts. During the year ended December 31, 2008, it established Supplemental Liquidity Providers (SLPs). NYSE Arca operates an open, all-electronic stock exchange for trading all United States listed securities. NYSE Arca also provides additional listing services for ETPs. NYSE Arca’s trading platform provides customers with fast electronic execution and open, direct and anonymous market access. It operates a trade reporting facility with Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) to serve its customers reporting off-exchange trades in all listed national market system (NMS) stocks.

NYSE Bonds, the Company bond trading platform, incorporates the design of the NYSE Arca electronic trading system and provides investors with the ability to readily obtain transparent pricing and trading information. Trading members in its United States cash markets include entities registered as broker-dealers with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that have obtained trading permits or licenses in accordance with the rules of the NYSE, NYSE Arca or NYSE Amex. NYSE Arca and NYSE Amex operate marketplaces for trading options on exchange-listed securities.

NYSE Liffe US received Designated Contract Market (DCM) status in August 2008 and began trading of full and e-mini gold and silver futures and options on futures contracts in September 2008. In October 2008, NYSE Liffe US selected The Options Clearing Corporation to provide clearing services from March 2009. The precious metals contracts provide a point of entry for NYSE Euronext into the United States futures market and complement the existing commodities futures franchise at NYSE Liffe.

Cash trading on Euronext’s markets in Amsterdam, Brussels, Lisbon and Paris takes place via nouveau systeme de cotation (NSC), Euronext’s fully automated electronic trading platform that allows trading members either to route their clients’ orders electronically or to enter orders manually into computer workstations installed on their premises and linked to the NSC system. The majority of Euronext’s cash trading members are brokers and dealers based in Euronext’s marketplaces, but also include members in other parts of Europe, most notably the United Kingdom and Germany. Clearing and settlement of trades executed on Euronext are handled by LCH.Clearnet (for central counterparty clearing), Euroclear Group (for settlement of cash equities except for Lisbon trades), and Interbolsa (for settlement of Lisbon cash equities). Interbolsa is one of its wholly owned subsidiaries. LCH.Clearnet and Euroclear are independent entities that provide services to Euronext pursuant to contractual agreement. It has a minority ownership interest in, and board representation on, LCH.Clearnet and Euroclear.

NYSE Liffe is the international derivatives business of NYSE Euronext. LIFFE CONNECT is the central electronic trading platform for Euronext’s derivatives markets. A range of products are traded on NYSE Liffe. NYSE Liffe’s core product line is its portfolio of short-term interest rate (STIR) contracts with its principal STIR contracts based on implied forward rates denominated in euro and sterling. Customers who might normally use the OTC market to trade equity derivatives have the ability to process transactions cheaply and efficiently using NYSE Liffe’s wholesale services—Bclear and Cscreen. Through these services, NYSE Liffe offers a flexible, secure, simple and cost-effective way of conducting wholesale equity derivatives trades.

NYSE Liffe’s trading members are dealers and brokers. Trading members can also become liquidity providers. Liquidity providers are able to place several series of bulk quotes in one order, allowing them to send buy and sell orders for many contract months using only one message. In October 2008, NYSE Liffe announced that it would take responsibility for clearing activities in its London market, subject to regulatory approval, through the creation of NYSE Liffe Clearing. It holds a 60% interest in BlueNext with the remaining 40% held by Caisse des Depots. BlueNext operates a spot market in carbon dioxide (CO2) emission allowances and credits, from trading through to worldwide delivery-versus-payment settlement in real time.

Listings

Through the Company’s listing venues, the NYSE, NYSE Arca and NYSE Amex in the United States, and Euronext and NYSE Alternext in Europe, it is a global exchange brand and a capital-raising venue. Its exchanges were home to over 4,900 listed issuers from 58 countries, including operating companies, closed-end funds and ETPs. In 2008, it United States and European equities markets attracted 1,201 new listings.

Market Data

The broad distribution of accurate and reliable real-time market data is essential to the proper functioning of any securities market because it enables market professionals and investors to make informed trading decisions. The quality of the Company’s market data, its collection and distribution facilities, and the ability of traders to act on the data it provides, attract order flow to its exchanges. Its primary market data services include the provision of real-time information relating to price, transaction or order data on all of the instruments traded on the cash and derivatives markets of its exchanges. In the United States, the Company provide two types of market data products and services: core data products, or those governed by NMS plans, and non-core, or proprietary data products.

In Europe, it distributes and sells both real-time and proprietary market information to data vendors (such as Reuters and Bloomberg), as well as financial institutions and individual investors. In addition to real-time market data, Euronext also provides historical and analytical data services, as well as reference and corporate action data services. The Company’s TradeCheck service, launched in October 2008, is designed to help buy side and sell side firms to demonstrate best execution to their customers and regulators. It publishes a number of daily official price lists, such as the Cote officielle in Paris, the Daily Bulletin in Lisbon and the Amsterdam Daily Official List. Euronext acquired Companynews and Hugin AS in order to meet the demand for specialized services in corporate news distribution resulting from the European Transparency Directive, which took effect in January 2007.

Indexes & Index Services

The Company has a portfolio of over 300 benchmark and strategy indexes that measure different segments of the NYSE Euronext and global markets. It has licensed many of its indexes to asset managers for use in exchange-traded funds (ETFs) that are listed on its exchanges. As of December 31, 2008, such traded products represented over $12 billion in assets under management. The Company also offers third-party index calculation services for ETFs and other structured products. It maintains nine NYSE benchmark indexes. Through its European subsidiary, Euronext Indices B.V., it maintains and improves approximately 200 existing indexes, including the flagship AEX, BEL 20, CAC 40, PSI 20 and Euronext 100 indexes, and develops new ones when added value for market participants is identified. The NYSE Arca indexes provide measurement tools for all types of investment categories regardless of listing venue.

The Company owns the Intellidex indexes, which consist of 40 indexes covering the United States listed marketplace and various sectors, industries, and size and style boxes. It had exclusively licensed these indexes to INVESCO PowerShares Capital Management LLC to use as the underlying indexes for ETFs in the United States.

Technology

The Company’s technologies are designed to support business-driven requirements and should be delivered on a timely basis with minimal defects. Its trading technologies are designed to provide fast and competitive response times, which are critical to operating successful electronic markets. NYXT supports trading on its markets, and is a provider of information technology solutions for exchanges, clearing houses and financial intermediaries. NYXT provides solutions across the entire range of activities of the exchange business, from exchange trading and trade support to post-trade activities. NYXT provides its exchanges and third-party exchanges with trade services, such as the capture, booking, routing, and matching of trading orders, as well as linkages to other marketplaces. NYXT’s trade support services, offered primarily to banks and brokers, include deal capture and trade administration, trade confirmation, position monitoring, risk control, portfolio management, and back-office services. Some of the systems, platforms and services offered by NYXT include TransactTools, LIFFE CONNECT and Wombat.

The Company competes with CME Group Inc., Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), the International Securities Exchange, BATS, the Boston Options Exchange, Nasdaq OMX, incumbent exchange groups, IntercontinentalExchange, the CME Group Inc, ELX Futures, L.P., Deutsche Borse, European Climate Exchange and Eurex.