The NASDAQ Stock Market, also known as simply the NASDAQ, is an American stock exchange. "NASDAQ" originally stood for "National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations". It is the second-largest stock exchange by market capitalization in the world, after the New York Stock Exchange. As of January 25, 2011, there are 2,711 listings, with a total capitalization of over $4.5 trillion. The NASDAQ has more trading volume than any other electronic stock exchange in the world. The exchange is owned by NASDAQ OMX Group, which also owns the OMX stock exchange network.

NASDAQ was founded in 1971 by the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD), who divested themselves of it in a series of sales in 2000 and 2001. It is owned and operated by the NASDAQ OMX Group, the stock of which was listed on its own stock exchange beginning July 2, 2002, under the ticker symbol NASDAQ: NDAQ. It is regulated by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), the successor to the NASD.

Thomas Dutronc (born 16 June 1973 in Paris) is a jazz (jazz manouche) French guitarist. His mother is the singer Françoise Hardy. His father is the singer, songwriter, guitarist, and film actor Jacques Dutronc.

On 13 February 2008, he received the UNAC award for his song J'aime plus Paris.

On 8 March 2008, he was nominated at the 23rd Victoires de la Musique in the both categories as new artist of the year and album of the year.

Mark Elliot Zuckerberg (born May 14, 1984) is an American computer programmer and Internet entrepreneur. He is best known as one of four co-founders of the social networking site Facebook, of which he is chairman and chief executive.

Zuckerberg was born and raised in a Jewish household in New York state. While still in middle school in his early teens, he took up writing software programs as a hobby, beginning with BASIC, with help from his father. His father then hired a tutor to help his son develop his programming skills further. Zuckerberg's enjoyment in writing programs led him to developing computer games, writing a music player, and setting up a primitive home network he called "ZuckNet." His private tutor calls him a "prodigy." In high school he excelled in classic literature and science, while becoming proficient in four other languages. He was also captain of the school's fencing team.

He later enrolled in Harvard, majoring in computer science and sociology. In his sophomore year he wrote a program called Facemash as a "fun" project, letting students on the college's network vote on other students' photo attractiveness. It was shut down within days, but would become a template for his writing Facebook, a program he launched from his dormitory room. With the help of friends, including roommate Dustin Moskovitz, Facebook went national on other campuses, and they moved to Palo Alto, California. By 2010, the site had an estimated 500 million users worldwide. Zuckerberg and Facebook have since been involved in various legal disputes initiated by others who have claimed a share of the company's profits due to their help in setting it up. Zuckerberg is the largest individual shareholder with 28.4 percent of the common stock and controls 56.9 percent of the voting power. As of 2012^[update], his personal wealth was estimated at more than $19.1 billion, making him one of the world's youngest billionaires. Zuckerberg is one of the 30 richest people on Earth.

Meredith Ann Whitney (born November 20, 1969) is a banking analyst and frequent contributor to CNBC, Fox Business, and Bloomberg News programs. Based in New York City, Whitney manages her own advisory firm, Meredith Whitney Advisory Group LLC, where she produces company-specific equity research on financial institutions and analyzes the sector's operating environment. She was formerly a managing director at Oppenheimer & Co.

Whitney graduated from The Madeira School in 1987 before doing a post-graduate year at The Lawrenceville School. She was a member of the first co-ed graduating class of The Lawrenceville School. She graduated with honors from Brown University.

Whitney joined Oppenheimer in 1993 as a research associate covering the Oil and Gas Industry. In 1995, she joined the company's Specialty Finance Group. In 1998, she left the company, eventually becoming the head of financial institution research at Wachovia. Whitney returned to Oppenheimer in 2004, where she covered banks and brokers. She resigned from Oppenheimer on February 19, 2009 to establish her own firm.