New York, N.Y.—-The NASDAQ Stock Market today announced it will change the criteria companies must meet to be included in and remain a component of the NASDAQ-100 Index, which includes many of the world's largest and most dynamic companies across major industry groups.

"As one of the most closely watched barometers of market activity in the world, the NASDAQ-100 Index and its eligibility criteria are periodically reviewed to ensure that they reflect the largest, non-financial companies listed on NASDAQ," said John Jacobs, executive vice president, NASDAQ Financial Products. "There are over 400 products in 28 countries that track the NASDAQ-100 Index. It has truly become a world class financial benchmark".

Changes to the criteria for inclusion in the index include:

• Doubling the minimum average daily trading volume criteria to 200,000 from 100,000 shares;
• Removing additional market capitalization thresholds for foreign securities;
• Requiring a company that has been listed on a public market less than two years to be in the top 25% of the current Index securities by market value for the previous six consecutive months; and
• Prohibiting securities from being included if the annual financial statements of the issuer of the securities cannot currently be relied upon.

Changes to the continued inclusion criteria include:

• Establishing a minimum market value threshold requiring a security to equal or exceed .10% of the Index at the end of each month; and subjecting securities to removal from the Index if they fail to meet this threshold for two consecutive months; and
• Prohibiting securities from being included if the annual financial statements of the issuer of the securities cannot currently be relied upon.

To view a complete list of the criteria, click here.

The new criteria will be implemented on October 30, 2002 and will be applied when determining which securities will be included and excluded in the annual ranking of the NASDAQ-100 Index in December 2002.

NASDAQ (OTCBB:NDAQ) is the world's largest electronic stock market. With approximately 3,800 companies, NASDAQ lists more companies and trades more shares per day than any other U.S. market. Over the past five years, NASDAQ has outpaced all other U.S. markets in listing IPOs. It is home to category-defining companies that are leaders across all areas of business including technology, retail, communications, financial services, media and biotechnology industries. NASDAQ is a key driver of capital formation. For more information about NASDAQ, visit the NASDAQ Web site at www.NASDAQ.com or the NASDAQ Newsroom^SM at www.nasdaq.com/newsroom.