US stock exchange Nasdaq is to buy OMX, which operates seven Nordic and Baltic exchanges, in an agreed takeover.
Nasdaq is bidding a mix of cash and paper, valuing OMX at €2.7 billion. The new entity will be called The Nasdaq OMX Group.
Trading in OMX shares had been suspended Thursday in Stockholm and Helsinki on takeover speculation.
The stock exchange operator is one of six Swedish businesses in which the Swedish state has shares it wants to sell. The state owns 6.8% of OMX.
There had been speculation that a Nasdaq bid was coming, but recent reports had centred on the London Stock Exchange as a possible buyer of OMX. The group owns stock exchanges in Copenhagen, Stockholm, Helsinki, Reykjavik, Riga, Tallinn and Vilnius.
Nasdaq is the US's second-biggest stock market. It has already expanded into Europe by taking a 28.75% stake in the London Stock Exchange, although it failed in an attempt to take over the LSE entirely.
