Nasdaq to Acquire Sybenetix

NEW YORK & LONDON, July 25, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Nasdaq, Inc. (Nasdaq:NDAQ) today announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Sybenetix, a leading surveillance provider that combines behavioral analytics and cognitive computing with financial markets expertise. Sybenetix's technology offering is designed to solve key surveillance challenges facing the asset management industry.  

The addition of Sybenetix to Nasdaq's Risk & Surveillance suite of solutions, including SMARTS and TradeGuard, will allow Nasdaq to bring deeper technology savviness and expertise to buy-side compliance officers across the global capital markets who require future-focused surveillance capabilities to protect their firms. Sybenetix's behavioral science technology will further strengthen Nasdaq's conduct surveillance offering, which will provide a holistic view of behavioral risks across trade, ecomms, acomms, and other monitoring and surveillance functions. This will also help support compliance departments in addressing complex regulations and policies-both current and on the horizon-such as MAR, MiFID II, Dodd-Frank, Regulation Automated Trading, trader conduct & remuneration, personal account dealing and fair investment allocation.

"Nasdaq is investing in the technologies, talent and capabilities that solve the complex challenges our clients face," said Adena Friedman, President and CEO of Nasdaq. "We believe behavioral science, cognitive computing and machine intelligence are essential to a successful, holistic surveillance offering and critical to efficient and effective organizational compliance with an increasingly intricate global regulatory environment. As such, we are thrilled to welcome the talented technology team and clients from Sybenetix. Their bespoke compliance, surveillance and performance management technology can meet the needs of the world's largest asset managers and will be complementary to Nasdaq's Risk and Surveillance suite. This acquisition accelerates our offering to the buy-side and advances our ambitions to expand market integrity controls into all segments of the capital markets."

Taras Chaban, CEO and Wendy Jephson, Chief Behavioral Scientist, the Founders of Sybenetix, said: "We are extremely proud to be joining Nasdaq. This acquisition is recognition of the talent, innovation and hard work of the Sybenetix team. Being part of Nasdaq will provide enormous growth opportunities for Sybenetix's surveillance technologies and will also accelerate new product development for the buy-side industry. Our clients will benefit from the added confidence of working with a world-leading company that understands the business and requirements of Sybenetix's buy-side customers. We believe this is an incredible opportunity and are looking forward to working with the Nasdaq team."

As the industry benchmark for real-time and T+1 cross-market surveillance platforms, Nasdaq's SMARTS surveillance technology automates the detection, investigation and analysis of potentially abusive or disorderly trading, to help improve the overall efficiency of the surveillance organization and reduce cost, even as market complexity and new regulations increase. These solutions are used to power monitoring for more than 45 marketplaces, 17 regulators and 140+ market participants, including several buy-side institutions, across 65 countries, while Nasdaq's market technology, including trading, clearing, and CSD systems, is in operation in over 100 marketplaces across the Americas, Europe, Asia, Australia, Africa, the Middle East and the Caribbean.

Nasdaq will acquire Sybenetix for an undisclosed amount and intends to fund the purchase price with cash on hand. Nasdaq does not expect the acquisition to have a material impact on Nasdaq's financial leverage or capital return strategy, and is expected to generate attractive returns on capital.

About Nasdaq

Nasdaq (Nasdaq:NDAQ) is a leading global provider of trading, clearing, exchange technology, listing, information and public company services. Through its diverse portfolio of solutions, Nasdaq enables customers to plan, optimize and execute their business vision with confidence, using proven technologies that provide transparency and insight for navigating today's global capital markets. As the creator of the world's first electronic stock market, its technology powers more than 90 marketplaces in 50 countries, and 1 in 10 of the world's securities transactions. Nasdaq is home to approximately 3,900 total listings with a market value of approximately $12 trillion. To learn more, visit: http://business.nasdaq.com.

About Sybenetix

Sybenetix is a leading behavioural analytics company, providing the next-level category of advanced analytics being used by major financial institutions for market surveillance, conduct risk measurement and performance improvement.  Sybenetix's unique team of experts in technology, behavioural science, financial performance and conduct management have been recognised through multiple industry awards for improved business outcomes for their customers. Sybenetix's technology allows clients to improve regulatory, reputational and operational effectiveness whilst dramatically reducing costs. Sybenetix is headquartered in London, United Kingdom and is backed by leading Fintech and Regtech investors Summer Capital, Collinio Capital and Yarrow Capital. http://sybenetix.com

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements 

Information set forth in this communication contains forward-looking statements that involve a number of risks and uncertainties.  Nasdaq cautions readers that any forward-looking information is not a guarantee of future performance and that actual results could differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking information.  Such forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to (i) projections relating to our future financial results, total shareholder returns, growth, trading volumes, products and services, order backlog, taxes and achievement of synergy targets, including in connection with the acquisition of Sybenetix, (ii) statements about the closing or implementation dates and benefits of the acquisition of Sybenetix, (iii) statements about our integrations of our recent acquisitions and future integration of the Sybenetix acquisition, (iv) statements relating to any litigation or regulatory or government investigation or action to which we are or could become a party, and (v) other statements that are not historical facts.  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 filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, including its annual reports on Form 10-K and quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, which are available on Nasdaq's investor relations website at http://ir.nasdaq.com and the SEC's website at www.sec.gov.  Nasdaq undertakes no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

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