NEW YORK, May 3, 2012 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The NASDAQ OMX Group, Inc. (Nasdaq:NDAQ) today announced that it has agreed to acquire BWise, a global leader in enterprise governance, risk management and compliance (GRC) software. BWise's premium GRC platform will be available through NASDAQ OMX Corporate Solutions, a NASDAQ OMX software technology business dedicated to helping public and
private companies minimize risk, maximize efficiency and increase transparency with a suite of governance, investor relations and public relations products.
With this acquisition, NASDAQ OMX Corporate Solutions now offers companies the ability to track, measure and manage key organizational risks — including the risk of non-compliance — with industry leading governance, management and compliance software and services. Through the fully-integrated BWise GRC platform, NASDAQ OMX Corporate Solutions supports C-level executives and boards as they work to be more efficient managers of risk, increasing the transparency of their companies and allowing them to build more sustainable, compliant businesses.
Additionally, BWise's premier case management, workflow management, reporting, and dashboard capabilities complement and enrich SMARTS, NASDAQ OMX's industry-leading surveillance and compliance monitoring platform for brokers, exchanges and regulators. Together, these solutions provide broker-dealers with a holistic platform for market surveillance, compliance monitoring and risk management globally.
Established in 1994, BWise provides companies with a single software platform designed to cover all aspects of a company's GRC needs. Using a unique process-based approach, BWise provides a single repository for companies to track, measure and manage critical corporate policies, controls and business risks across their entire business entity. BWise is named a leader in the report, "The Forrester Wave™: Enterprise Governance, Risk, and Compliance Platforms, Q4 2011" and positioned as a leader in the Gartner MQ report 2011 for EGRC Platforms.
Bruce Aust, Executive Vice President, NASDAQ OMX: "With increasing regulations and, subsequently, greater exposure to risk, GRC is seen as a key indicator of business performance and stability. At NASDAQ OMX, we continue to be motivated by a strong desire to help our companies be more transparent, strategic and efficient. We are excited to align BWise's best-in-industry GRC solutions with our premium board portal, Directors Desk, as we continue to look for innovative ways to provide C-level executives and boards with relevant, integrated services. We also look forward to continuing to promote the fairness, efficiency and integrity of the global marketplace with the integration of BWise and SMARTS."
Robert Pijselman, CEO, BWise: "This is a truly exciting moment for BWise. We believe in a world where all key information related to compliance, risk, and sustainability is made available to stakeholders in an integrated, efficient way."
Luc Brandts, CTO and Founder, BWise: "By partnering with NASDAQ OMX, we will add scale to the BWise team and strengthen our ability to provide industry-leading GRC solutions globally. This acquisition allows us to continue to execute on our vision of becoming the GRC global market leader for our customers, employees and stakeholders."
For more information on BWise, please visit http://www.bwise.com/. For more information on NASDAQ OMX Corporate Solutions, please visit: http://www.nasdaqomx.com/services/corporatesolutions/.
About NASDAQ OMX
The inventor of the electronic exchange, The NASDAQ OMX Group, Inc., fuels economies and provides transformative technologies for the entire lifecycle of a trade - from risk management to trade to surveillance to clearing. In the US and Europe, we own and operate 24 markets, 3 clearinghouses and 5 central securities depositories supporting equities, options, fixed income, derivatives, commodities, futures and structured products. Able to process more than 1 million messages per second at sub-40 microsecond speeds with 99.999% uptime, our technology drives more than 70 marketplaces in 50 developed and emerging countries into the future, powering 1 in 10 of the world's securities transactions. Our award-winning data products and worldwide indexes are the benchmarks in the financial
industry. Home to approximately 3,400 listed companies worth $5.1 trillion in market cap whose innovations shape our world, we give the ideas of tomorrow access to capital today. Welcome to where the world takes a big leap forward, daily. Welcome to the NASDAQ OMX Century. To learn more, visit www.nasdaqomx.com. Follow us on Facebook (
http://www.facebook.com/NASDAQ) and Twitter (http://www.twitter.com/nasdaqomx). (Symbol: NDAQ and member of S&P 500)
About NASDAQ OMX Corporate Solutions
NASDAQ OMX Corporate Solutions leads the industry with innovative products and services that power global business communications for today's forward-thinking public and private companies. The NASDAQ OMX Group, Inc. is the first exchange operator dedicated to owning and operating a core platform of products that help companies minimize risk, maximize efficiency, and increase transparency. A majority of NASDAQ-100 companies have relied on NASDAQ OMX Corporate Solutions products and services to enhance their corporate communications, investor relations and board support. For more information on NASDAQ OMX Corporate Solutions, please visithttp://www.nasdaqomx.com/services/corporatesolutions/.
About BWise
BWise, established in 1994, is the global leader in Enterprise Governance, Risk Management and Compliance (GRC) software. Based on a strong heritage in business process management, BWise delivers a truly integrated and proven GRC platform. With this platform, BWise supports an organization's ability to track, measure and manage key organizational risk in one integrated system. By doing so, BWise helps customers to be truly in control by sustainably balancing their performance and risks. BWise also enables its customers to increase corporate accountability; strengthen financial, strategic and operational efficiencies; and maximize performance, and better understand risks. Using BWise, organizations are able to comply with regulations such as Sarbanes-Oxley, ISAE3402/SAS-70, PCI, Solvency II, Basel II and III, Dodd-Frank, ISO-standards, European Corporate Governance Codes and many
more. BWise provides for the GRC needs of hundreds of customers, worldwide, across all industries. Customers include adidas, AEGON, AngloGold Ashanti, Connexxion, Health Alliance Plan (HAP) of Michigan, LeapFrog, Liebherr, Marathon Oil, Southern Company, Swiss Life, TNT and Transcontinental. BWise has offices in the Netherlands, United States, Germany, France and the United Kingdom. For more information, visit http://www.bwise.com/.
Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements
The matters described herein contain forward-looking statements that are made under the Safe Harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements include, but are not limited to, statements about the acquisition of BWise and NASDAQ OMX's products and offerings. We caution that these statements are not guarantees of future performance. Actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied in the forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements involve a number of risks, uncertainties or other factors beyond NASDAQ OMX's control. These factors include, but are not limited to factors detailed in NASDAQ OMX's annual report on Form 10-K, and periodic reports filed with the
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. We undertake no obligation to release any revisions to any forward-looking statements.
Please visit www.bwise.com/bwise-news-room for additional information.
CONTACT: NASDAQ OMX U.S.
Alexandra Honeysett
Alexandra.honeysett@nasdaqomx.com
(646) 441-5211
NASDAQ OMX Europe
Martin Hedensio
martin.hedensio@nasdaqomx.com
+46 8 405 6254
BWise
Clarinda Dobbelaar
Clarinda.Dobbelaar@bwise.com
+31 (0)73 6464915
Source:
The NASDAQ OMX Group, Inc.
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