NASDAQ OMX Group (NDAQ)

The SEC may challenge or not approve our plan to become a national securities exchange or it may require changes in the manner we conduct our business before granting this approval, which may adversely impact our business or our shareholders.

The SEC may not approve our application for exchange registration or may require changes in our corporate governance structure and the way we conduct our business before granting this approval. Failure to be so registered could adversely affect our competitive position and could have a material adverse effect on our business conditions and business prospects. For example, we would remain subject to NASD’s control if we do not obtain our own license to operate as a self-regulatory organization. This may limit our ability to raise additional capital to expand and improve our products and services or to pay off our obligations. In addition, until exchange registration is granted, we likely will be required to continue sharing UTP Plan fees with other UTP Plan participants for Nasdaq Quotation Dissemination Service (“NQDS”) data, which provides subscribers with the best bid and offer information from each individual Nasdaq market maker and ECN. The obligation to share revenues with other UTP Plan participants for this NQDS data will cease upon exchange registration. Accordingly, any delay or failure to obtain exchange registration will impede our ability to retain fees for NQDS data.

Further, in connection with exchange registration, certain changes must be made to the national market system plans so that we can become a participant. Certain participants in the plans may object to, or request modifications to, amendments that we propose. In addition, in order to become a participant in these plans, we will need to pay amounts, which have not yet been determined, but which may be significant and could impact our business, financial condition and operating results. We may need to adjust our business practices to join these plans in a manner that will impose costs on us and could adversely impact our business, financial condition or operating results. Failure to resolve these issues could result in a denial or delay of exchange registration.

We have previously sought and obtained approval from the UTP Plan operating committee for changes to that plan to enable us to become a member once our exchange application has been approved. We have also sought the approval of the operating committees for the other three national market system plans. The operating committee of one national market system plan voted not to accept our proposed changes to that plan that would allow us to become a plan member and to operate our execution system in accordance with our chosen business strategy upon exchange registration. We plan to continue negotiating with the members of the plan; however, we

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cannot predict the outcome of those negotiations at this time. A failure to achieve a successful outcome could require us to alter our business strategy in an unfavorable manner or could otherwise limit our ability to participate as an exchange under such plan.

In addition, the SEC has advised us that as a condition to exchange registration, we will need to comply with the provision of Section 6 of the Exchange Act requiring that national exchanges provide for representation of their “members” (as defined in the Exchange Act) on their boards of directors. The SEC recently proposed rule changes that could affect the governance of SROs. The proposed rules would require that at least 20% of the total number of directors of an exchange must be selected by its broker-dealer members. While the outcome is not yet clear, we may have to revise our board structure as a condition to exchange registration so that only our members would elect a certain percentage of our board and our stockholders would elect the remainder of the board. In addition, the proposed rules would, among other things, require SROs to implement certain minimum governance standards, including a majority independent board, fully independent nominating, governance, audit, compensation and regulatory oversight committees, and the separation of an SRO’s regulatory functions from its market operations and other business interests. We cannot predict whether these proposed requirements will be adopted by the SEC in their proposed form, a different form, or at all, and cannot now predict the impact of the proposed requirements on our business.

The SEC recently approved new listing standards with respect to listing our common stock on The Nasdaq Stock Market. These listing standards require periodic reporting of compliance to the SEC and an annual compliance audit by an independent accounting firm. Our failure to maintain compliance with these listing standards could result in our common stock being delisted from The Nasdaq Stock Market. In addition, the SEC has recently proposed Regulation AL, a new regulation that would institute a set of rules for demutualized exchanges and securities associations that intend to list their own securities or those of an affiliate. If Regulation AL is adopted by the SEC, we may have to alter our operations and business to comply with Regulation AL to the extent that Regulation AL supersedes our listing standards. We cannot predict whether this new rule proposal will be adopted by the SEC in its proposed form, a different form, or at all, and cannot now predict the impact of the proposed requirements on our business.

The SEC also has raised a concern about our desire to remain a venue to which our market participants can report internalized trades, since internalization may result in orders being executed ahead of similarly priced orders for the same security already entered in the Nasdaq Market Center. In December 2004, we filed a proposed rule change with the SEC designed to address the SEC’s concern about us not always according strict time priority to similarly priced orders for the same security entered in the Nasdaq Market Center. The SEC has published our proposed rule change for public comment. The proposed rule change seeks to eliminate any deviations from strict time priority in the execution algorithm of the Nasdaq Market Center’s execution system, including the current internalization exception. The only remaining exception in the new algorithm would be for instances when a deviation is necessary for a member to avoid internalizing an order if that member has a regulatory or fiduciary obligation to do so. We are continuing to work with the SEC on how to address the time priority issue with respect to trades that are reported to us but executed outside the Nasdaq Market Center execution system. We are continuing discussions with the SEC to resolve this issue, but we can make no assurances as to the result of such discussions.

Also, in order for broker-dealers to continue as our market participants after the SEC grants our application for exchange registration, broker-dealers will need to become members of Nasdaq. After we become an exchange, these broker-dealers will no longer be able to rely on their NASD membership to utilize our products and services. There is no assurance that broker-dealers will choose to become members of Nasdaq. If broker-dealers determine not to become Nasdaq members upon the SEC granting our application to become an exchange, our business, financial condition and operating results could be adversely affected.

Accordingly, there can be no assurance that exchange registration will occur or that the registration process will occur in a timely manner. Because of the nature of the regulatory process and the variety of market structure

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issues that would have to be resolved across all markets, the registration process has been lengthy. In the long-term, the failure to be approved as an exchange by the SEC may have negative implications on our ability to fund our planned initiatives.