The completion of the Brut acquisition accelerates NASDAQ's growth initiatives and enhances NASDAQ's competitive position. Effective September 1 st , Brut began to report its trades to the NASDAQ Market Center. NASDAQ and Brut customers will benefit from a deeper pool of liquidity, enhanced execution quality and better depth-of-book information. NASDAQ customers will also be able to access multiple destinations outside the NASDAQ Market Center through the use of Brut's sophisticated, smart-order router.

Bob Greifeld, president and chief executive officer of NASDAQ, stated, “This transaction is an important milestone for NASDAQ's growth plans and NASDAQ and Brut customers are the beneficiaries, with deeper liquidity, better connectivity and the addition of new execution services. As a result, we believe this transaction will complement our strategy to provide lower cost and more efficient trading, contributing to our mission to be the number one stock market for trading U.S. stocks.”

Throughout 2004, NASDAQ has delivered its customers a trading platform with competitive pricing, FIX connectivity, new order types and complete anonymity. With the Brut transaction, NASDAQ will continue to be the only neutral destination for trading NASDAQ-listed stocks. As an unconflicted trading destination, NASDAQ offers deep pools of liquidity without competing with its customers for institutional order flow.

“The Brut ECN, like NASDAQ, has focused on innovation and attention to customer service. As a result of this transaction, we will maximize our services to become a one-stop venue with deeper liquidity, advanced order routing and connectivity on one competitive low-cost platform. We look forward to a smooth and efficient integration,” added Mr. Greifeld.

The integration of Brut's services into NASDAQ will be seamless to both NASDAQ and Brut's customers. Brut will continue to operate under the Brut name as a broker-dealer; however, it will operate as a part of The NASDAQ Stock Market. Brian Hyndman will continue to be President of Brut and will become Senior Vice President of NASDAQ Transaction Services, reporting directly to Chris Concannon, Executive Vice President of NASDAQ Transaction Services. William O'Brien will remain Chief Operating Officer of Brut reporting directly to David Warren, NASDAQ's Chief Financial Officer.

In connection with the transaction, NASDAQ and SunGard entered into a hosting and multi-year processing agreement for SunGard to provide a real-time securities clearance and settlement system for certain NASDAQ trades.