Customer Spotlight: NASDAQ MarketSite Evolves Stock Ticker With Microsoft's Silverlight Technology

REDMOND, Wash. and NEW YORK, July 1 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- NASDAQ's popular stock ticker display — seen by hundreds of thousands of investors daily at the NASDAQ MarketSite® in Times Square and used as the backdrop for its television broadcast to a variety of broadcast outlets worldwide — is getting a hi-definition redesign with Microsoft Silverlight.

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"At NASDAQ OMX, we take pride in the speed and reliability of our products. That's why we were delighted to see how quickly and easily we could use Silverlight to build powerful and rock-solid applications," said Brad Vopni, senior vice president at NASDAQ OMX. "With Microsoft's Silverlight technology, we were able to create graphics that reflect the real-time changes that happen in the stock market and we redesigned the stock ticker at the NASDAQ MarketSite with higher-quality graphics. The technology is nimble and extensible, giving us a platform upon which to build future products while taking advantage of existing Microsoft software already in place at the NASDAQ MarketSite."

NASDAQ OMX selected Microsoft Silverlight for its ability to dynamically connect to standard Web services for content and data as well as its ability to easily extend to the organization's other platforms in the future, such as the Web or mobile devices. Silverlight enables Web applications to deliver functionality that business users demand — all within a modern, consumer-friendly user interface.

"Microsoft technologies, such as Silverlight, are familiar, easy-to-use and adaptable," said Bob Suess, general manager, East Region Developer and Platform Evangelism, Microsoft. "Silverlight in particular has the capability of powering amazing data visualization. And because it is approaching 60 percent installation on Internet-connected devices worldwide, Silverlight is a natural fit for NASDAQ OMX and its broad base of consumers."

The newly launched NASDAQ stock ticker can be seen daily as the NASDAQ Market Site's studio and will also be displayed in the lobby at Broadway and 43rd Street in New York.  Microsoft Silverlight 4 and Expression Engine 4 are currently available as a download at http://www.microsoft.com/getsilverlight.

About NASDAQ OMX

The NASDAQ OMX Group, Inc. is the world's largest exchange company. It delivers trading, exchange technology and public company services across six continents, with more than 3,600 listed companies. NASDAQ OMX offers multiple capital raising solutions to companies around the globe, including its U.S. listings market, NASDAQ OMX Nordic, NASDAQ OMX Baltic, NASDAQ OMX First North, and the U.S. 144A sector. The company offers trading across multiple asset classes including equities, derivatives, debt, commodities, structured products and exchange-traded funds. NASDAQ OMX technology supports the operations of over 70 exchanges, clearing organizations and central securities depositories in more than 50 countries. NASDAQ OMX Nordic and NASDAQ OMX Baltic are not legal entities but describe the common offering from NASDAQ OMX exchanges in Helsinki, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Iceland, Tallinn, Riga, and Vilnius. For more information about NASDAQ OMX, visit http://www.nasdaqomx.com. Please follow NASDAQ OMX on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/nasdaqomx and Twitter (http://www.twitter.com/nasdaqomx).

About Microsoft

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

SOURCE Microsoft Corp.