NASDAQ OMX Group (NDAQ)

Our revenues may be impacted by competition in the business for financial products.

We have grown our financial products business, which creates and licenses Nasdaq-branded financial products. Nasdaq-sponsored financial products are subject to intense competition from other ETFs, derivatives and structured products as investment alternatives. Our revenues may be adversely affected by increasing competition from competitors’ financial products designed to replicate or correlate with the performance of Nasdaq financial products.

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In addition, the legal and regulatory climate, which supports the licensing of these financial products, may change. For certain license agreements there could be an increased risk of counterparty default. In this intensely competitive environment, new entrants may seek to avoid the cost of licensing by trading QQQ or other Nasdaq financial products without a license. We have filed one lawsuit against a party trading QQQ without a license. While the trial court dismissed certain of our claims in September 2004, in November 2004 we petitioned the court to allow us to file an amended complaint. We intend to defend our intellectual property rights and take appropriate legal action against any other entity that seeks to trade Nasdaq financial products without obtaining a license from us. If we are unsuccessful in our lawsuit, it may negatively impact our ability to receive license fees from U.S. markets that trade the QQQ on a UTP basis.