Nasdaq Stock Market - Foreign Expansion

The NASD announced in 1999 its intentions to spend generously on Internet technology for the purposes of staving off competition from ECNs and, simultaneously, to expand globally. Its ultimate goal was a globally integrated securities market under its purview. Nasdaq launched its London-based European exchange in late 2000. Around the same time, Nasdaq established its own Japanese board in conjunction with the Japanese Internet investment company Softbank, linking Japanese investors seamlessly to Nasdaq's U.S. and European markets. This added to Nasdaq's existing Internet Web service in partnership with the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong, which offers information service on various markets to investors across the globe. Nasdaq won praise from analysts for its success in integrating various trading cultures into its own system.