New York, December 19, 2005 — The Nasdaq Stock Market, Inc. (“NASDAQ®”; NASDAQ: NDAQ) announced today that William O’Brien has been appointed Senior Vice President, New Listings, with NASDAQ’s Corporate Client Group. In this role, O’Brien will be responsible for managing NASDAQ’s efforts to attract U.S. listings, including IPOs and exchange switches. Mr. O’Brien will report to Bruce Aust, Executive Vice President of the Corporate Client Group.

“Bill’s leadership in working with clients and his intimate knowledge of market structure make him an ideal addition to the Corporate Client team,” said Bruce Aust, Executive Vice President of the Corporate Client Group. “NASDAQ continues to gain momentum in its listings business and we are very pleased to have Bill on board to help communicate the benefits of listing on NASDAQ.”

Prior to this appointment, O’Brien served as senior vice president of NASDAQ’s Market Data Distribution group. In this role, O’Brien was responsible for maintaining the integrity of all market data disseminated to the public and worked with NASDAQ Technology Services to create new data products to serve the industry’s information needs. He was also responsible for the creation and dissemination of information products from the quoting and trading of NASDAQ securities.

Mr. O’Brien joined NASDAQ in 2004 from Brut, LLC, where he helped direct all operational and strategic affairs of the company. O’Brien helped lead Brut through its September 2004 acquisition by NASDAQ. Mr. O’Brien joined Brut as Senior Vice President and General Counsel in September 2000, with responsibilities that included management of Brut’s legal affairs, regulatory strategy and Compliance Department.

Previously, Mr. O’Brien was Vice President and Assistant General Counsel at Goldman, Sachs & Co., where he was responsible for providing legal and regulatory compliance coverage to the firm’s prime brokerage, securities lending, equity financing and soft-dollar business units. Before joining Goldman Sachs he was an Associate at Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP, practicing in their Market Regulation Practice Group.

About NASDAQ
NASDAQ® is the largest electronic screen-based equity securities market in the United States. With approximately 3,200 companies, it lists more companies and, on average, trades more shares per day than any other U.S. market. It is home to companies that are leaders across all areas of business including technology, retail, communications, financial services, transportation, media and biotechnology. NASDAQ is the primary market for trading NASDAQ-listed stocks. For more information about NASDAQ, visit the NASDAQ Web site at www.nasdaq.com or the NASDAQ Newsroom at www.nasdaq.com/newsroom/.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements
The matters described herein may contain forward-looking statements that are made pursuant to the Safe Harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The NASDAQ Stock Market, Inc. (“NASDAQ”) cautions that these statements are not guarantees of future performance. Actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied in the forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements include projections which have not been reviewed by independent auditors of NASDAQ. Forward-looking statements involve a number of risks, uncertainties or other factors beyond NASDAQ’s control. These factors include, but are not limited to, NASDAQ’s ability to implement its strategic initiatives, economic, political and market conditions and fluctuations, government and industry regulation, interest rate risk, U.S. and global competition, and other factors detailed in NASDAQ’s annual report on Form 10-K, and periodic reports filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. In addition, these statements are based on a number of assumptions that are subject to change and do not include results of INET and are subject to change if the INET transaction is consummated. Accordingly, actual results may be materially higher or lower than those projected. The inclusion of such projections herein should not be regarded as a representation by NASDAQ that the projections will prove to be correct. We undertake no obligation to release any revisions to any forward-looking statements.

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