Nasdaq Nordic is the common name for the subsidiaries of

Nasdaq, Inc. Nasdaq, Inc. is an American multinational financial services corporation that owns and operates three stock exchanges in the United States: the namesake Nasdaq stock exchange, the Philadelphia Stock Exchange, and the Boston Stock Exchange, and ...

that provide

financial services Financial services are the Service (economics), economic services provided by the finance industry, which encompasses a broad range of businesses that manage money, including credit unions, banks, credit-card companies, insurance companies, acco ...

and operate marketplaces for securities in the Nordic and

Baltic Baltic may refer to: Peoples and languages * Baltic languages, a subfamily of Indo-European languages, including Lithuanian, Latvian and extinct Old Prussian *Balts (or Baltic peoples), ethnic groups speaking the Baltic languages and/or originati ...

regions of

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

. Historically, the operations were known by the company name ''OMX AB'' (''Aktiebolaget Optionsmäklarna''/Helsinki Stock E''x''change), created in 2003 with the

merger Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are business transactions in which the ownership of companies, other business organizations, or their operating units are transferred to or consolidated with another company or business organization. As an aspect ...

between ''OM AB'' and ''HEX plc''. In 2015, the legal entity OMX AB was renamed Nasdaq AB, but it also operates under the name ''Nasdaq OMX AB''. The operations have been part of

(formerly known as ''Nasdaq OMX Group'') since February 2008.

History

Origins

OM AB (''Optionsmäklarna'') was a

futures exchange A futures exchange or futures market is a central financial exchange where people can trade standardized futures contracts defined by the exchange. Futures contracts are derivatives contracts to buy or sell specific quantities of a commodity or f ...

founded by Olof Stenhammar in the 1980s to introduce trading in standardized

option Option or Options may refer to: Computing *Option key, a key on Apple computer keyboards *Option type, a polymorphic data type in programming languages *Command-line option, an optional parameter to a command *OPTIONS, an HTTP request method ...

contracts in

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

. OM acquired the Stockholm Stock Exchange in 1998 and unsuccessfully attempted acquisition of the

London Stock Exchange London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange in the City of London, England, United Kingdom. , the total market value of all companies trading on LSE was £3.9 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St Pau ...

in 2001. During the

dot-com bubble The dot-com bubble (dot-com boom, tech bubble, or the Internet bubble) was a stock market bubble in the late 1990s, a period of massive growth in the use and adoption of the Internet. Between 1995 and its peak in March 2000, the Nasdaq Compo ...

in the early 2000s, OM, together with investment bank Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, launched a virtual European stock exchange called Jiway. The project was not successful and was cancelled on 14 October 2002.

Acquisition of other exchanges

On 3 September 2003, the Helsinki Stock Exchange (HEX) merged with OM and the joint company became OM HEX. On 31 August 2004, the company name was changed to OMX. OMX then acquired the Copenhagen Stock Exchange in January 2005 for €164 million. On 19 September 2006,

Iceland Stock Exchange The Nasdaq Iceland, formerly known as the Iceland Stock Exchange (XICE) ( is, Kauphöll Íslands), is a stock exchange located in Iceland. It was established in 1985 as a joint venture of several banks and brokerage firms on the initiative of the ...

owner Eignarhaldsfelagid Verdbrefathing (EV) announced it would be acquired by OMX in a deal valuing the company at 250 million SEK. The transaction was completed by the end of the year. The company took a 10% stake in

Oslo Børs Holding Euronext N.V. (short for European New Exchange Technology) is a pan-European bourse that offers various trading and post-trade services. Traded assets include regulated equities, exchange-traded funds (ETF), warrants and certificates, bonds, de ...

ASA, the owner of the

Oslo Stock Exchange Oslo Stock Exchange ( no, Oslo Børs) (OSE: OSLO) is a stock exchange within the Nordic countries and offers Norway’s only regulated markets for securities trading today. The stock exchange offers a full product range including equities, deriv ...

in October 2006. As of September 2016, Nasdaq is not a major shareholder in the Oslo Stock Exchange holding company, which following a merger is currently called ''Oslo Børs VPS Holding ASA''. Nasdaq has, however, publicly stated its interest in eventually acquiring the Oslo Stock Exchange. In November 2007, OMX acquired the

Armenian Stock Exchange Armenia Securities Exchange or "AMX" ( hy, Հայաստանի ֆոնդային բորսա), formerly NASDAQ OMX Armenia, is the only stock exchange currently operating in Armenia. It is located in Yerevan, the capital city. The state regulatory a ...

and the Central Depository of Armenia.

Expansion of offerings

In December 2005, OMX started

First North Nasdaq First North Growth Market is a division of Nasdaq Nordic and an alternative stock exchange (legally a multilateral trading facility) for smaller companies in Europe. The market place Nya Marknaden in Stockholm changed name to First North in ...

, an alternative exchange for smaller companies, in

Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark ...

. The First North exchange expanded to

Stockholm Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...

in June 2006,

Iceland Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its s ...

in January 2007 and

Helsinki Helsinki ( or ; ; sv, Helsingfors, ) is the Capital city, capital, primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Finland, most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of U ...

in April 2007. The Markets Technology division of Computershare was acquired in 2006. The acquisition greatly expanded its product offerings and made its client list the largest of all trading system technology providers. On 2 October 2006, the group launched a virtual Nordic Stock Exchange after merging the individual lists of shares traded at its three

wholly owned A subsidiary, subsidiary company or daughter company is a company owned or controlled by another company, which is called the parent company or holding company. Two or more subsidiaries that either belong to the same parent company or having a s ...

Nordic exchanges into a combined Nordic List. Companies listed on the Iceland Stock Exchange have also since been merged into the list. OMX also launched a pan-regional benchmark index known as the

OMX Nordic 40 The OMX Nordic 40 (OMXN40) is a stock market index for the pan-regional (virtual) Nasdaq Nordic. It is a capitalization-weighted index, created on October 2, 2006, that consists of the 40 most-traded stock classes of shares from the four stock marke ...

on the same date; however, the individual exchanges also retained their own national benchmark indices.

NASDAQ takeover

On 25 May 2007,

NASDAQ The Nasdaq Stock Market () (National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations Stock Market) is an American stock exchange based in New York City. It is the most active stock trading venue in the US by volume, and ranked second ...

agreed to buy OMX for US$3.7 billion. In August, however,

Borse Dubai Borse Dubai is a stock exchange in the United Arab Emirates. It is the holding company for Dubai Financial Market (DFM) and NASDAQ Dubai (formerly known as DIFX). Borse Dubai was created 6 August 2007 to consolidate the Government of Dubai's t ...

offered US$4 billion, prompting speculation of a bidding war. On 20 September 2007, Borse Dubai agreed to stop competing to buy OMX in return for a 20% stake and 5 percent of votes in NASDAQ, as well as NASDAQ's then-28% stake in the

. In a complex transaction, Borse Dubai acquired 97.2% of OMX's outstanding shares before selling them to NASDAQ. The newly merged company was renamed the NASDAQ OMX Group upon completion of the deal on 27 February 2008.

Exchanges

The following exchanges, with official market names in parentheses, are operated by Nasdaq Nordic: * Copenhagen Stock Exchange (Nasdaq Copenhagen) * Stockholm Stock Exchange (Nasdaq Stockholm) * Helsinki Stock Exchange (Nasdaq Helsinki) *

(Nasdaq Iceland) * Tallinn Stock Exchange (Nasdaq Baltic) *

Riga Stock Exchange The Nasdaq Riga, formerly Riga Stock Exchange, is the sole stock exchange operating in Riga, Latvia. It is owned by Nasdaq, which also operates exchanges in the USA, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Iceland, Armenia, Lithuania, and Estonia. Established i ...

(Nasdaq Baltic) *

Vilnius Stock Exchange The Nasdaq Vilnius is a stock exchange established in 1993 (''Vilnius Stock Exchange'', ''VSE'') operating in Vilnius, Lithuania. It is owned by Nasdaq Nordic, which also operates Helsinki Stock Exchange and Stockholm Stock Exchange. OMX Vilnius ...

(Nasdaq Baltic)

Divisions

The company's stock market activities are made up of three entities: *Nordic Market (Copenhagen, Stockholm, Helsinki, Iceland) *Baltic Market (Tallinn, Riga, Vilnius) *

(alternative exchange)

References

External links

www.nasdaq.com
- Official group site
nasdaqomxnordic.com
- Official Nordic site
nasdaqbaltic.com
- Official Baltic site

- Official Armenian site {{Stock exchanges top 25 2003 establishments in Sweden Swedish companies established in 2003 Financial services companies established in 2003 2003 mergers and acquisitions 2005 mergers and acquisitions 2006 mergers and acquisitions 2007 mergers and acquisitions Economy of the Nordic countries Nasdaq, Inc.