CME Group and NASDAQ OMX Group Announce Expanded Long-Term Partnership

The Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) Group, a derivatives exchange and provider of equity index futures and options, and The NASDAQ OMX Group, which delivers trading, exchange technology and public company services, will expand their long-term partnership through two new initiatives. First, the NASDAQ OMX Group will extend CME Group's exclusive rights to offer futures and options on futures contracts based on NASDAQ indices, for an additional seven-year period, through 2019. This agreement, which would have expired in 2012, further strengthens the longstanding partnership between these two exchanges that began in 1996. CME Group currently offers a number of NASDAQ-related futures and options contracts including the NASDAQ-100 and E-mini NASDAQ 100, the NASDAQ Composite and the NASDAQ Biotechnology, with average daily volumes of approximately 490,000 and a compounded annual growth rate during the last ten years of 61 percent.

Second, CME Group Board of Directors has approved the decision to single list its common stock on The NASDAQ Global Select. The ticker symbol will remain CME. "For more than a decade, CME Group and NASDAQ have enjoyed a strong relationship," said CME Group executive Chairman Terry Duffy, in a press release. "Together, we have been able to provide a series of significant and innovative hedging and risk management tools to the marketplace, benefiting CME Group's customers and creating new value for the shareholders of both organizations. We are pleased to further extend this productive partnership with this exclusive agreement. Furthermore, after evaluating the trading of our stock and leveraging NASDAQ's corporate services, we believe that single listing on The NASDAQ Stock Market recognizes the value and importance of our relationship," he added.