'NASDAQ' Major Shareholder Acquires Additional Billions in Shares… CEO Sells Stocks Worth 380 Billion Won

Investor AB, a major shareholder with over a 10% stake, acquired 200,000 common shares of Nasdaq, Inc. (NASDAQ: NDAQ) on the open market on February 13 at approximately $79.18 per share—totaling about $15.8 million (roughly KRW 200 billion). With this purchase, Investor AB, through its subsidiary Innax AB, now holds approximately 58.38 million Nasdaq common shares, representing an estimated stake valued at about $4.6 billion (around KRW 6 trillion) based on the disclosed price.

Earlier, on February 2, Nasdaq CEO Adena T. Friedman exercised 300,000 stock options and immediately sold the same number of shares at an average price of $96.91, generating roughly $29 million in cash (about KRW 380 billion). According to regulatory filings, she still maintains a substantial direct and indirect ownership stake following the sale.

Immediately after Friedman’s large sale in early February, Nasdaq’s share price plunged more than 9% in a single day and entered a corrective phase. As of mid-February, shares are trading in the high $70s—around 20% below the 52-week high reached in mid-January.

In its Q4 2025 results, Nasdaq beat market expectations by reporting revenue of $1.4 billion (approximately KRW 1.8 trillion) and earnings per share of $0.96. To boost transparency in private capital markets, the company also launched a new Private Capital Index, reflecting over $11 trillion in assets.

Headquartered in New York, Nasdaq is a global exchange operator and financial infrastructure company, providing the Nasdaq Stock Market plus a range of trading platforms, data and indices, and cloud-based market technologies to financial institutions worldwide. Investor AB, controlled by Sweden’s Wallenberg family, is a prominent long-term investment holding company with strategic stakes in multiple global public companies—including more than 10% of Nasdaq’s shares. Since 2017, Adena Friedman has been recognized as a leading female executive in the U.S. large-exchange industry.