Nasdaq to purchase OMX

Nasdaq Stock Market Inc. has agreed to buy Nordic markets owner OMX AB for $3.7 billion, after failing on an earlier bid to purchase the London Stock Exchange. The move, which was announced today, will create the second largest transatlantic stock exchange in less than a year. Last June, NYSE Group Inc., the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange, agreed to merge with Euronext NV, an Amsterdam-based exchange operator. Under the agreement, Nasdaq is offering 0.502 Nasdaq shares and $13.79 in cash for each share of Stockholm, Sweden-based OMX. The new group, which will be called the NASDAQ OMX Group, merges Nasdaq's electronic trading platform with OMX's global technology services platform and derivatives capabilities. The new company brings together the largest electronic stock market in the United States and the owner of the exchanges in Stockholm, Helsinki, Copenhagen, Iceland and the Baltic states. "This combination provides our organizations with the ability to grow and accelerate the global flow of equity capital," said Robert Greifeld, chief executive of Nasdaq, according to a statement. "At the same time, it provides us with an excellent platform for further expansion into derivatives and other asset classes."