The Nasdaq Stock Market, Inc. announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Directors Desk, a privately held, Washington-based firm which provides technology to boards of public and private companies in the U.S and abroad.

The acquisition of Directors Desk follows closely on the heels of Nasdaq’s recent launch of Board Recruiting, an online matching service for companies and board members. Directors Desk will be part of a new service category in Nasdaq’s Corporate Client Group, further establishing Nasdaq’s presence as a
strategic service provider to corporate boards. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Bruce Aust, executive vice president of Nasdaq, commented, “Efficient and effective communication has become an increasingly difficult task at the board level in an environment where corporations and board
members must manage more information that is increasing in complexity. Directors Desk helps streamline the day-to-day functions of board management and eases the burden on directors so that they can focus on the information that is most critical to decision making.”

“We chose Directors Desk because we believe it has the best capabilities and features of any company in the category, with the technology to develop more services as the needs of a board evolve and change,” he added.

“Directors Desk recognized early on that forward-thinking boards would need better tools to truly advance the board function. In a fast evolving corporate governance environment, we are offering the right product at the right time,” said Howard Breindel, president of Directors Desk. He continued, “Nasdaq was the perfect fit for us given their relationships with public companies, their philosophy to help
companies manage their public responsibilities, and their global brand.”

The transaction is expected to close early in the third quarter of 2007.