ITEM 1. BUSINESS

The information in this report contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Such statements are based upon current expectations that involve risks and uncertainties. Any statements contained herein that are not statements of historical fact may be deemed to be forward-looking statements. For example, words such as "may," "will," "should," "estimates," "predicts," "potential," "continue," "strategy," "believes," "anticipates," "plans," "expects," "intends" and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Our actual results and the timing of certain events may differ significantly from the results discussed in the forward-looking statements. Factors that might cause or contribute to such a discrepancy include, but are not limited to, those discussed elsewhere in this report in the section entitled "Risk Factors."

OVERVIEW OF OUR BUSINESS

We are a leading provider of business-to-business electronic marketplace solutions. We host and operate electronic marketplaces and real-time auctions and license software to market participants through our fully-integrated network and over the Internet. Our products enable market participants to transact business instantaneously, more effectively and at lower cost. In 2000, we processed over 3 million electronic transactions, totaling more than $32 trillion of transactional volume. During the past year, we added over 35 new products to our electronic marketplaces, entered into key software licensing agreements and more than tripled our revenues. We have over 650 clients, including the largest fixed income trading firms and leading natural gas and electricity trading firms in the world. We have offices in the U.S., Europe, Asia and Canada.

We believe we offer one of the most robust, large-scale, instantaneous and reliable transaction processing systems. Our global private network permits market participants to view information and execute transactions in a fraction of a second. Our proprietary software provides an end-to-end solution, including front-end applications, transaction processing engines, credit and risk management tools and back-office and clearance modules, enabling straight-through processing.

Our revenues consist primarily of transaction fees, software licensing fees and system services fees. We do not risk our own capital in transactions or extend credit to market participants.

Our eSpeed(sm) system is accessible to our clients through (1) our proprietary application programming interface, or API, our dedicated front-end software application, (2) via the Internet through a browser interface or Java applet and
(3) front-end trading systems developed by third-party software companies. Our system runs on large-scale hardware located in three data centers located in the U.S. and Europe and is distributed either over our global network or via the Internet through links to multiple, global Internet service providers.

Additionally, our system operates a fully regulated U.S. futures exchange currently known as the Cantor Exchange(sm). This exchange is the first fully electronic futures exchange in the U.S. and serves as our platform for the

electronic trading of a broad range of futures contracts globally. The New York Board of Trade, through its subsidiaries, provides clearing and regulatory services and we provide electronic execution and related services for the Cantor Exchange(sm). Currently, the Cantor Exchange(sm) has obtained regulatory authority to operate in the United Kingdom, Denmark, Finland, France, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Norway, Portugal and in eight German states.

We market our services through the following three basic products: eSpeed Markets(sm), eSpeed Private Label(sm) and eSpeed Online(sm).

o eSpeed Markets(sm) is a full service solution combining all of our proprietary software and our global high-speed private network. eSpeed Markets(sm) currently operates in some of the largest and most complex marketplaces, and is designed to be extendible to any multiple buyer, multiple seller marketplace. eSpeed Web Markets(sm) offers the core features of eSpeed Markets(sm) through a complete Internet-only distribution channel.

o eSpeed Private Label(sm) provides a complete outsourced solution to our clients to enable them to distribute their branded products to their customers through online offerings, auctions, including private and reverse auctions, and request-for-quote capabilities.

o eSpeed Online(sm) provides retail-based e-commerce businesses with online access to wholesale market participants. It enables them to offer their customers access to a variety of markets that are traditionally available only to institutional investors and wholesalers.

Our objective is to be the world's leading provider of interactive electronic marketplaces and related software solutions. We believe that the scalability and extendibility of our eSpeed(sm) suite of products enable us to introduce new markets and distribute products and services more quickly, cost effectively and seamlessly than our competitors.

We commenced operations in March 1999 as a division of Cantor Fitzgerald Securities, a subsidiary of Cantor Fitzgerald, L.P. Our initial focus was the global fixed income, foreign exchange and futures and options trading markets, which we refer to as the Financial Vertical. Our relationship with Cantor, a leading global inter-dealer broker in the fixed income markets, has enabled us to become the leader in this electronic marketplace. In the last year, we have significantly expanded the types of products traded electronically through our eSpeed(sm) system. Our goal is to offer the full range of financial products currently traded in today's global markets. In 2000, we entered the North American energy market with a group of leading energy industry partners. We plan to serve additional marketplaces, which we refer to as vertical marketplaces, including global energy, bandwidth, telecommunications, chemicals, electronic components, metals and other markets that can benefit from more efficient, centralized, electronic trading facilities. We also plan to leverage our electronic marketplace expertise and reputation to sell software products and services directly to participants in these marketplaces.

OUR INDUSTRY

Historically, the trading of products has been an inefficient process. Buying, selling or trading activity is traditionally effected through either (1) a central physical location, like a trading pit or auction house, where market participants have to access the market through this central location, (2) a broker or bilateral arrangement with a buyer or seller or (3) several layers of middlemen and salesmen who assist in handling orders. Each of these approaches is people and time intensive, which adds to the direct and indirect cost of the product bought or sold.

Additional inefficiencies with transaction execution include lack of real-time price information, small disparate groups of interested buyers and sellers, limited liquidity and problems associated with executing trades as market prices change. As more transactions occur and participants extend credit to each other, there are added risks to both buyers and sellers because of the lack of sophisticated risk management tools. Also, after a buy or sell order is executed, there are the additional tasks of recording, accounting, tracking, delivering and financially settling the transaction. Each of these tasks, if done manually, can add potential cost and error to the process as additional participants or systems enter the transaction cycle.

Electronic marketplaces have emerged as effective means of conducting business-to-business transactions. In an electronic marketplace, substantially all of the participants' actions are facilitated through an electronic medium, such as a private electronic network or over the Internet, which effectively eliminates the need for actual face-to-face or voice-to-voice participant interaction, reducing the inefficiencies inherent in a physical market. Additionally, as adoption of the Internet has become more widespread, businesses are recognizing online channels as an efficient means of distribution of their products to their customers.

Many financial exchanges worldwide, including certain exchanges in France, Germany, Japan, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, are now partially or completely electronic. Various electronic marketplaces have been implemented to address the varied needs of the broad business-to-business initiatives, including marketplaces aimed at the procurement of finished goods or services, as well as neutral marketplaces for the trading of commodity or commodity-like goods. We believe the trading of commodity-like products will require capabilities found in the financial markets, including real-time pricing, futures and other hedging capabilities and robust interactive trading. Additionally, we believe companies will seek to outsource online solutions for the electronic distribution of their products to avoid the difficulty and cost of developing and maintaining their own online solutions.

OUR SOLUTION

Our electronic marketplace end-to-end solution includes real-time and auction- based transaction processing, credit and risk management tools and back-end processing and billing systems, all accessible through our global privately managed high-speed data network and over the Internet. Because of the scale and adaptability of our system, our eSpeed(sm) products have applications across a broad range of companies, industries and vertical marketplaces, including any business-to-business marketplace involving multiple buyers and multiple sellers. In addition, we license

our software to provide a complete outsourced solution to our clients enabling them to distribute their branded products to their customers through online offerings and auctions, including private and reverse auctions, and request-for-quote capabilities. Our products enable market participants to transact business instantaneously, more effectively and at lower cost.

OUR TECHNOLOGY PLATFORM

Our electronic marketplace solutions operate on our technology platform that emphasizes scalability, performance, adaptability and reliability. Our technology platform consists of:

o our proprietary, internally developed real-time global network distribution system;

o our proprietary transaction processing software, which includes order matching auction engines, fully integrated credit and risk management systems, pricing engines and associated middle and back-office operations systems;

o client interfaces ranging from Windows, Java, UNIX, our proprietary static library API and proprietary vendor access; and

o customized inventory distribution and auction protocols designed to be used by our clients and partners in their distribution and trading systems.

Together, these components enable our clients to effect transactions in real- time, with straight-through processing.

Network distribution system

Our eSpeed(sm) system contains a proprietary hub- and-spoke digital network. This network uses Cisco Systems' network architecture and is operated by Cisco-certified engineers. Our network's high-speed points of presence comprise the major business centers of the world, including New York, London, Tokyo, Frankfurt, Paris, Milan, Chicago, Los Angeles and Toronto. Altogether, we manage 22 hubs linked by over 50,000 miles of cable, over 1,000 Cisco network devices and more than 450 high capacity Sun super servers and Compaq Alpha super servers located in three data centers in New York, London and Rochelle Park, New Jersey. The redundant structure of our system provides multiple backup paths and re-routing of data transmission if one spoke of a hub fails. We believe we operate one of the largest and most robust interactive trading network distribution systems currently in operation.

Our distribution system accepts orders and postings instantaneously and distributes responses, generally in 300 milliseconds. We estimate that our network is currently running at approximately 15% of capacity.

In addition to our own network system, we also receive and distribute secure trading information from clients using the services of multiple, major Internet service providers throughout the

world. These connections enable us to offer our products and services via the Internet to our global clients.

Transaction processing software

Most of our software applications have been developed internally and are central to the success of our eSpeed(sm) system. Our auction and trading engines operate in real time, facilitating efficient interaction between buyers and sellers. Our credit and risk management systems monitor and regulate these buyers and sellers. Our pricing engines provide prices for illiquid financial products derived from multiple trades in other related financial instruments. These critical applications work together seamlessly and are supported by middle and back office software that verifies, confirms, reports, stores, tracks and, if applicable, enables the settlement of each transaction. Our transaction processing software includes verification mechanisms at various stages of the execution process, which result in significantly reduced manual intervention, decreased probability of erroneous trades and more accurate execution for clients.

eSpeed(sm) transaction engines

Our auction and transaction engines use Interactive Matching(sm), our proprietary rules-based method, to process in excess of 150 transactions per second per auction, instrument or product. These engines were developed to support trading in the largest capital markets in the world, such as government bonds and futures contracts, and the more diverse, fragmented and database intensive markets, such as U.S. municipal bonds (with over 1.7 million different issues), corporate bonds and Eurobonds. These transaction engines are designed to be modular and flexible to allow modification in order to apply them to other markets and auction types. In Europe, for example, we have added a component that allows us to process transactions and auctions in multiple currencies simultaneously. Our transaction engines have embedded security features and an added messaging layer to provide security from unauthorized use. In addition, we use encryption to protect our clients that transact business over the Internet.

We believe our marketplace expertise and rules-based systems provide incentives for clients to actively participate in our marketplaces. For example, Interactive Matching(sm) provides incentives to participate in our marketplaces by encouraging participants to expose their orders to the market. In standard auctions, the incentive is for participants to wait until the last moment to make a bid or offer. Our priority rules encourage trading activity by giving the last successful active participant a time-based right of first refusal on the next sale or purchase. In addition, in many markets we have structured our pricing policy to provide incentives. The party that provides auction products for the market or creates liquidity (by inputting a price to buy or sell) pays less commission (or no commission) than the participant that consummates the trade by acting on that price. With our pricing policies and proprietary priority rules, our system is designed to increase activity and to draw participants into the market. This proprietary rules-based system is adaptable and, as part of our business strategy, we intend to apply it across other non-financial markets for multiple products and services.

eSpeed Credit Master(sm) - credit and risk management systems

Our credit and risk management systems are critical to the operation of our electronic marketplaces. These systems (1) continuously monitor trades of our clients to help prevent them from exceeding their credit limits, (2) automatically prevent further trading once a client has reached a pre-determined credit limit and (3) evaluate transactions and calculate both individual positions and risk exposure across various products and credit limits. Our proprietary credit and risk management systems can also be made available to our global clients to enable them to monitor the position of their traders and are integrated with our private label systems so our global clients can monitor the credit of their customers who transact directly with them online. These systems store client data relevant to credit and risk management, such as financial statements, credit documents, contacts and internal analyses. These systems also enable our clients to make our electronic marketplaces available to their customers while maintaining control of their customers' trading activity and risk.

eSpeed Name Give-Up Matrix(sm) - credit monitoring

Through the use of our name give-up matrix, we enable our market participants to create counterparty credit exposure limits to manage the counterparties with which they transact in non-central counterparty markets. In these markets, participants settle transactions directly with other participants. Using this module, the participants can pre-select the counterparties that they are willing to transact with in that market. The module displays all prices to market participants, and highlights and enables execution on prices that are from approved counterparties. Additionally, the module has features that permit each participant to manage the activities of its traders on a real-time basis.

eSpeed(sm) pricing engines and analytics

We have developed a number of analytical software tools that permit us to price products that trade in less liquid markets and for which current pricing information is not readily available. For example, our MOLE(sm) system (Multiple Order Link Engine) is a computer application that enables us to link multiple markets, offer prices and create and enhance marketplaces for products that have limited liquidity. In the Financial Vertical, MOLE(sm) currently uses data from existing cash and futures markets to calculate pricing for transactions where no market prices currently exist, thereby facilitating liquidity. These multi-variable trades are extremely difficult to execute in voice-based markets due to their complexity and the slow speed of manual execution.

eSpeed(sm) middle and back-office applications

Our middle and back-office applications support clearance, settlement, tracking and reporting of trades and provide links to outside clearing entities. For example, in the financial markets, we outsource our fulfillment services to Cantor, where both parties to a trade send either cash or securities to Cantor and Cantor settles the trade and sends each party the cash or securities due. Our reporting and accounting systems are designed to track and record all charges and commissions for a trade. Our eSpeed(sm) system and products automate previously paper and

telephone-based transaction processing, confirmation and other functions, substantially improving and reducing the cost of many of our clients' back offices, and enabling straight-through processing.

Client interfaces

Our system can be accessed by our clients in four ways:

o using our eSpeed(sm) proprietary front-end trading software;

o using our application programming interface for clients to write their own software linking their networks and software applications directly to our systems. Our application programming interface enables clients to conduct computer price updating, program trading and straight-through processing;

o through the Web via a browser, or using a downloaded Java application or dedicated proprietary software application via the Internet, both for wholesale clients and for retail clients who participate in our marketplaces; and

o through software developed in alliances with third-party independent software vendors.

eSPEED(sm) PRODUCTS

We market our services through the following three products: eSpeed Markets(sm), eSpeed Private Label(sm) and eSpeed Online(sm).

eSpeed Markets(sm)

eSpeed Markets(sm) is a full service solution combining all of our proprietary software and our global high-speed private network. eSpeed Markets(sm) currently operates in some of the largest and most complex marketplaces, and is designed to be extendible to any multiple buyer, multiple seller marketplace. eSpeed Web Markets(sm) offers the core features of eSpeed Markets(sm) with a complete Internet-only distribution channel.

eSpeed Markets(sm) enables us to operate what we believe is the only integrated network engaged in electronic trading in multiple products and marketplaces on a global basis. We believe that the time and expense required to develop and install electronic trading networks will serve as a significant barrier to entry.

Financial Vertical

Wholesale fixed income. The global fixed income market is the largest financial market in the world. The Bond Market Association estimates that in the U.S. alone, as of the second quarter of 2000, there were over $15 trillion of fixed income securities outstanding with over $360 billion of volume traded daily. In the U.S. Treasury securities market, there is reported to be over $200

billion a day in trading just among the primary dealers and their clients. In Europe, Asia and the emerging markets, there were approximately $16 trillion of fixed income securities outstanding at December 31, 1999. In Europe, the creation of the Euro has manifested a market second only to the U.S. in breadth. In Asia, the Japanese government bond market grew 44.6%, from $2.8 trillion outstanding in 1997 to $4.1 trillion outstanding in 1999. The global market for interest rate swaps, interest rate options and currency swaps had over $60 trillion in notional value outstanding as of June 2000.

Foreign exchange. The trading of currencies in all monetary pairs represents the largest trading volume market in the world. The Bank for International Settlements estimates the daily volume traded in the foreign exchange markets to have been $1.97 trillion in 1999.

Futures and options. Futures and options trading is a leading financial activity throughout the world, with contracts traded on a wide variety of financial instruments, commodities and indexes. According to the Futures Industry Association, Inc., in 2000, over 1.4 billion futures contracts and over 1.5 billion options contracts were traded in the world's futures and options markets. Currently, most futures trading is still being done on open outcry exchanges, but there has been a significant movement towards the conversion of these markets to electronic trading. To date, we believe the most successful initiatives have been made in Europe. We believe that there is significant opportunity in the continued conversion of these markets to electronic networks, such as our own.

Limitations of the traditional financial market

While the traditional financial market facilitates trading, it has significant shortcomings such as the following:

o limited direct access and, therefore, many investors may not receive efficient pricing;

o high transaction costs and slow execution due to the number of people involved in a voice transaction;

o difficulty in implementing program trading, especially programs designed to automatically and simultaneously execute multiple trades in different, but related products;

o significant expense incurred in processing, confirming and clearing manual processes; and

o compliance and regulatory risk associated with voice transactions and non- automated audit trails.

Our Financial Vertical solution

The Financial Vertical contains many of Cantor's largest marketplaces, including U.S. Treasury and agency securities, European, Japanese, Canadian and emerging market sovereign bonds, U.S. and global corporate bonds, mortgage-backed securities, municipal bonds, interest rate

swaps and options, futures, options, repos and basis trades. Cantor is a major facilitator and, in some cases, provider of liquidity in numerous financial products through its offices in the U.S., Canada, Europe and Asia. Our eSpeed Markets(sm) product provides the only way to electronically access Cantor's marketplaces. Our eSpeed Markets(sm) product also will power the electronic platform of Freedom International Brokerage, the leading inter-dealer broker of Canadian fixed income products, foregin exchanges and other capital producs, upon the closing of our recent alliance with Freedom, Cantor and six leading financial institutions.

Our private electronic network for wholesale financial markets is connected to most of the largest financial institutions worldwide. We have installed in the offices of our existing client base the technology infrastructure necessary to provide price information and trade execution on an instantaneous basis in a broad range of securities and financial instruments. We believe our eSpeed(sm) suite of products enables us to introduce and distribute a broad mix of financial products and services quickly, efficiently and at lower cost.

In our electronic marketplaces, participants may either electronically execute trades themselves or call brokers, who then input trade orders into the market for them. In a fully electronic trade, all stages of the trade occur electronically. The participant inputs its buy or sell order instructions directly into our electronic trading system using our software, a web-browser, or electronically through an application programming interface or other software. Our system provides to the participant, normally within 300 milliseconds, an on-screen confirmation that the participant's order has been accepted. Simultaneously, an electronic confirmation can be sent to the participant's back office and risk system, enabling risk management capabilities and straight-through processing for the participant. A broker assisted trade is executed in substantially the same manner as an electronic trade, except that the participant telephones a broker, who then inputs the participant's order into our electronic marketplace system.

Energy Vertical

In September 2000, we, together with Coral Energy Holding (an affiliate of Shell), Dominion Energy, Dynegy, Koch Energy Trading, TXU Energy Trading, Williams Energy Marketing & Trading and Cantor, announced the formation of TradeSpark, a new comprehensive energy marketplace. TradeSpark was created as a wholesale marketplace for energy-related products and services in North America with both electronic trading systems and voice brokers. As part of our arrangement with TradeSpark, we have implemented electronic marketplaces for natural gas, electricity, coal, weather derivatives and emission allowances. It is the intention of TradeSpark to provide the full spectrum of energy-related tradable instruments, including cash, spot, forward, futures, indices and data sales.

TradeSpark unites our technology platform, accessed over both a private global network and the Internet, and our partners' in-depth energy market knowledge and liquidity to bring speed, neutrality, efficiency and technological leadership to the energy trading market.

Since inception, over 120 companies, including most of the major energy trading firms in North America, have traded using TradeSpark. We effected over 12,500 transactions comprising over

$16 billion of transaction volume since TradeSpark's inception. Gas Daily reports that the TradeSpark partners, together with Dynegy and Entergy, traded approximately 32.8 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day and Power Markets Week reports that these companies traded 403 million megawatt hours of electricity during 2000. These companies estimate they traded roughly 20% of all gas and power traded in North America during the last quarter of 2000. Forrester Research predicts that, by 2004, online sales of natural gas will total $166 billion, representing 25% of all natural gas sales, and online sales of electricity will total $101 billion, or 11% of all electricity sales.

Limitations affecting the traditional energy market

The traditional voice-brokered energy marketplace has been fraught with inefficiencies, including the lack of real-time price information, small pools of liquidity, high transaction costs and problems associated with executing trades in a fast moving market. More recently, credit has become a major issue to the market participants because of massive price fluctuations caused by various states' approaches to deregulation, the lack of a liquid hedging market and limited risk management tools. While there have been a handful of electronic systems and single dealer platforms initiated over the past three years, we believe that none have unbiased information about prices and enough products or liquidity to give companies exchange-like execution in the energy marketplace.

Our Energy Vertical solution

Powered by our full trading platform encompassed in eSpeed Markets(sm), TradeSpark offers an end-to-end marketplace and trading solution that includes real-time and auction-based transaction processing, risk management tools and back-end processing systems, as well as access to a fully registered futures exchange, allowing for the creation of futures and options products for this marketplace.

Designed to bring marketplace efficiency to the energy markets, TradeSpark is fully operational and employs approximately 50 brokerage personnel with access to eSpeed's electronic trading platform. TradeSpark offers three possible points of access to one pool of liquidity: over the Internet, through eSpeed's private network and through TradeSpark voice brokers.

eSpeed Private Label(sm)

eSpeed Private Label(sm) provides a complete outsourced solution to our clients, enabling them to distribute their branded products to their customers through online offerings and auctions, including private and reverse auctions, and request-for-quote capabilities. Our eSpeed Private Label(sm) product takes advantage of the scalability, flexibility and functionality of our eSpeed(sm) system to allow our clients to quickly create online connectivity to their customers.

We have signed private label agreements with Visible Markets, Sanwa Securities and the Federal Home Loan Bank. Visible Markets is the first browser-based auction marketplace for mortgage-backed securities, asset-backed securities and investment grade corporate bonds. eSpeed Private

Label(sm) will supplement Visible Markets' existing online, auction-based marketplace for less liquid fixed income products. Sanwa Securities is the securities subsidiary of Sanwa Bank, one of the largest financial institutions in Japan. We expect that the first product that Sanwa will transact with its customers through our real-time technology platform will be Japanese government bonds. The Federal Home Loan Bank is a U.S. Government sponsored enterprise and one of the largest issuers in the global short-term securities market. Our electronic auction- based technology will power the Federal Home Loan Bank's primary discount note auctions.

eSpeed Online(sm)

eSpeed Online(sm) provides retail-based e-commerce businesses with online access to wholesale market participants. It enables these online businesses to offer their customers access to a variety of markets that are traditionally available only to institutional investors and wholesalers. eSpeed Online(sm) also links to middle and back-office systems, providing a complete end-to-end retail solution for trade execution, risk management, processing and billing. To date, we have signed agreements with 13 online brokers, including AB Watley, Bondpage.com, Charles Schwab, Firstrade Securities, MostActives.com, Mr. Stock, Muriel Siebert, myTrack, Scot Trade, Sutton Online, The Net Investor, Tradescape and WebStreet Securities. On January 2, 2001, Charles Schwab & Co. introduced U.S. Treasuries and Agency securities to its customer base through eSpeed Online(sm).

Technological advances have created new and inexpensive means for individual investors to directly access markets online and participate in the securities markets. According to Forrester Research, the number of active online accounts grew from approximately 1.5 million at the end of 1996 to over 8.6 million at the end of 1999, representing $806.0 billion in assets. Despite the growth in online accounts and access to public equity markets, there has been very limited access for retail Internet trading in fixed income securities, futures, options and other wholesale financial instruments at cost-effective pricing and spreads. We believe that the emergence of electronic marketplaces that promote greater liquidity, enhanced access and more efficient pricing will increase trading among retail investors in financial and other products other than equities. We believe that companies will increasingly seek an outsourced solution to distribute their products electronically.

OUR GROWTH STRATEGY

Our objective is to be the world's leading provider of interactive electronic marketplaces and related software solutions to a broad range of industries and vertical marketplaces. We believe we can extend our expertise in the creation of instantaneous electronic marketplaces to a broad range of products and services. Our growth strategy to achieve this objective includes the following key elements:

Expand system functionality and develop new products, software and services for our existing financial and energy markets

We plan to continue to expand the types of financial, energy and other products traded in our marketplaces both in the United States and abroad. Our goal is to include in our electronic marketplaces the full range of products, including futures, options and other derivatives of these products, that are currently traded in today's markets worldwide. In addition, we plan to develop software and services to add new methods to effect transactions in these products. We expect that our traditional client base will begin to trade new products as we develop electronic marketplaces for them, and we intend to continue to convert existing clients to our fully electronic platform.

Leverage our eSpeed(sm) system for use in a wide range of additional business- to-business markets and industries

Because of the scale of our system and its ease of adaptability, we believe our eSpeed(sm) system has applications across a broad range of products, including Internet-based marketplaces for a wide array of goods and services, particularly those involving multiple buyers and sellers. As evidenced by the formation of TradeSpark, we are well positioned to leverage the significant costs and efforts that have been incurred developing our eSpeed(sm) system to quickly create electronic markets in a wide range of products. We plan to serve additional marketplaces, including global energy, bandwidth, telecommunications, chemicals, electronic components, metals and other markets that can benefit from more efficient, centralized, electronic trading facilities.

License our software to provide a broad range of market participants with an outsourced solution for online distribution of their products

We provide a complete outsourced solution to our clients to enable them to distribute their branded products to their customers through online offerings, auctions, including private and reverse auctions, and request-for-quote capabilities. We have a dedicated sales force that focuses on licensing our software solutions to existing and new clients.

Pursue strategic alliances and acquisitions

We are continually exploring opportunities to maximize our growth, including acquisitions, strategic alliances, joint ventures, private placements, recapitalizations or any combination of the foregoing, to expand our vertical markets and generate future growth. We are seeking to enter into joint ventures and other strategic alliances to create liquidity in new and existing product markets, and to attract new participants to trade those products. We have employed this strategy in our recent formation of TradeSpark and our alliance with Freedom.

OUR CLIENTS

Our clients in the Financial Vertical include banks, dealers, brokers and other wholesale market participants, over 500 of which currently participate in our electronic marketplaces, including the 25 largest bond trading firms in the world, as identified by Euromoney Magazine. Our clients in the Energy Vertical include energy trading companies, utilities and other wholesale market

participants, over 120 of which currently participate in our electronic marketplace, including leading North American energy trading companies.

We are providing wholesale and retail investors access to the electronic marketplaces and brokerage-related services supported by our eSpeed(sm) system. We expect that a significant portion of our clients who use brokers will migrate to fully electronic access over the coming years. We also expect to add clients for our eSpeed Private Label(sm) product from a wide variety of industries. We further intend to provide third parties with the infrastructure, including systems administration, internal network support and operations and disaster recovery services, that is critical to providing fully electronic marketplaces in a wide variety of products. Other than Cantor, no client of ours accounts for more than 10% of our revenues.

SALES, MARKETING AND CORPORATE DEVELOPMENT

We promote our electronic marketplaces and services to our existing and prospective clients through a combination of sales, marketing and co-marketing campaigns. We leverage our client relationships through a variety of direct marketing and sales initiatives and build and enhance our brand image through marketing campaigns targeted at a diverse audience, including traders, potential partners and the investor and press communities. We market to our existing and prospective retail clients through a variety of co-marketing/co- branding initiatives with our online partners. We have designed our sales and marketing efforts to promote brand awareness and educate our audience regarding the nature of our electronic marketplaces, products and services and the advantages associated with the automation of trading activities. We have a team of over 60 sales and marketing personnel globally.

Additionally, our senior management and our corporate development staff actively work to establish strategic relationships, develop new markets for our technology and structure and execute investments and acquisitions. They promote eSpeed at conferences, conventions, events and speaking engagements that advance both our technology and our brand name. In many cases, these engagements are focused within specific vertical markets that we intend to develop in the future. All of these efforts are intended to enhance our image, profile and profitability.

SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT

We devote substantial efforts to the development and improvement of our electronic marketplaces and licensed software products. We work with our clients to identify their specific requirements and make modifications to our software, network distribution systems and technologies that are responsive to those needs. Our research and development efforts focus on internal development, strategic partnering, acquisitions and licensing. We have approximately 400 technology professionals, of which 225 persons are software developers. Our technology team's objective is to develop new products and services in order to provide superior electronic marketplace solutions to our clients. We also focus our efforts on enhancing our Internet interfaces to facilitate real-time markets and comply with the standard Internet security protocol and future security protocols in order to capitalize on the development of new commercial marketplaces. We are continuing to develop new marketplaces and products using our internally

developed application software. In addition, we have forged strategic alliances with third-party independent software vendors through which we will work to develop sophisticated, front-end applications and products.

COMPETITION

The development and operation of electronic marketplaces are evolving. As a result, competition in these marketplaces is currently fragmented. We expect to face competition from a number of different sources varying in size, business objectives and strategy.

Our current and prospective competitors are numerous and include inter-dealer brokerage firms, market data and information vendors, securities and futures exchanges, electronic communications networks, crossing systems, consortia, business-to-business marketplace infrastructure and software companies and niche energy market and other commodity business-to-business Internet-based trading systems.

The electronic marketplace solutions we provide to our clients enable them to expand the range of services they provide to their ultimate customers, which are also potential participants in our electronic marketplaces. We intend to structure our relationships with our clients and conduct our operations to mitigate the potential for this competition. We do not intend to use the access to the customer base of our clients that we obtain in providing our electronic marketplace solutions to compete with these clients in other product transactions.

We believe our electronic marketplaces compete primarily on the basis of speed, functionality, efficiency, price, system stability and ability to provide market participants with access to liquidity.

OUR INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

We have adopted a comprehensive intellectual property program to protect our proprietary technology. We currently have licenses covering four of Cantor's patents in the U.S. One patent relates to a data processing system and method for electronically trading select items such as fixed income instruments. Two patents relate to a fixed income portfolio index processor. One patent relates to a system for shared remote access of multiple application programs by one or more computers. Foreign counterpart applications for some of these U.S. patents have been filed. The licenses are exclusive, except in the event that we do not seek to or are unable to provide to Cantor any requested services covered by the patents and Cantor elects not to require us to do so.

We also have an agreement to license several pending U.S. patent applications relating to various other aspects of our electronic trading systems, including both functional and design aspects. We have filed a number of patent applications to further protect our proprietary technology and innovations in the past six months.

We cannot at this time determine the significance of any of the foregoing patents, or future patents, if issued, to our business. We can give no assurance that any of the foregoing patents is valid and enforceable, or that any of these patents would not be infringed by a third party competing or seeking to compete with our business.

EMPLOYEES

As of December 31, 2000, we had 493 employees, five of whom are our executive officers. None of these employees is represented by a union. We believe that we have good relations with our employees.

RISK FACTORS

In addition to the other information in this Report, the following risk factors should be considered carefully in evaluating us and our business.

RISKS RELATED TO OUR BUSINESS

Because we have a limited operating history, you may not be able to accurately evaluate us.

We have had limited operations to date and, as a result, we have a limited operating history upon which to evaluate the merits of investing in our Class A common stock. As an early stage company, we are subject to risks, expenses and difficulties associated with implementing our business plan that are not typically encountered by more mature companies. In particular, our prospects are subject to risks, expenses and uncertainties encountered by companies in the new and rapidly evolving market for electronic commerce products and services. These risks include our failure or inability to:

o provide services to our clients that are reliable and cost-effective;

o expand our sales structure and marketing programs;

o increase awareness of our brand or market positioning;

o respond to technological developments or service offerings by competitors; and

o expand into other non-financial markets.

We may not be able to implement our business plan successfully, or at all.

We expect to continue to incur losses and generate negative cash flow from operations.

Since our inception through December 31, 2000, we have sustained a cumulative net loss of approximately $73.0 million. We expect that we will continue to incur losses and generate negative cash flow from operations for at least the first half of 2001 as we continue to develop

our systems and infrastructure and expand our brand recognition and client base through increased marketing efforts.

If we do not expand the use of our electronic systems, or if our clients do not use our marketplaces or services, our revenues and profitability will be adversely affected.

The use of electronic marketplaces is relatively new. The success of our business plan depends, in part, on our ability to maintain and expand the network of brokers, dealers, banks and other financial institutions that use our interactive electronic marketplaces. We cannot assure you that we will be able to continue to expand our vertical marketplaces, or that we will be able to retain the current participants in our marketplaces. None of our agreements with market participants require them to use our electronic marketplaces.

If we are unable to enter into additional marketing and strategic alliances or our current strategic alliances are not successful, we may not generate increased trading in our electronic marketplaces.

We expect to continue to enter into strategic alliances with other market participants, such as retail brokers, exchanges, energy companies, communication companies, market makers, consortia, clearinghouses, major market participants and technology companies, in order to increase client access to and use of our electronic marketplaces. We cannot assure you that we will be able to continue to enter into these strategic alliances on terms that are favorable to us, or at all. In addition, we cannot assure you that our current strategic alliances will be successful. The success of our current and future relationships will depend on the amount of increased trading in our electronic marketplaces by the customers of these strategic alliance partners. These arrangements may not generate the expected number of new clients or increased trading volume we are seeking.

To increase awareness of our electronic marketplaces, we may need to incur significant marketing expenses.

To successfully execute our business plan, we must build awareness and understanding of our electronic marketplace services, software products, brand and the adaptability of our electronic marketplaces for non-financial vertical markets. In order to build this awareness, our marketing efforts must succeed and we must provide high quality services. These efforts may require us to incur significant expenses. We cannot assure you that our marketing efforts will be successful or that the allocation of funds to these marketing efforts will be the most effective use of those funds.

If we experience computer systems failures or capacity constraints, our ability to conduct our operations could be harmed.

We internally support and maintain many of our computer systems and networks. Our failure to monitor or maintain these systems and networks or, if necessary, to find a replacement for this

technology in a timely and cost- effective manner would have a material adverse effect on our ability to conduct our operations.

We also rely and expect to rely on third parties for various computer and communications systems, such as telephone companies, online service providers, data processors, clearance organizations and software and hardware vendors. Our systems, or those of our third-party providers, may fail or operate slowly, causing one or more of the following:

o unanticipated disruptions in service to our clients;

o slower response times;

o delays in our clients' trade execution;

o failed settlement of trades;

o incomplete or inaccurate accounting, recording or processing of trades;

o financial losses;

o litigation or other client claims; and

o regulatory sanctions.

We cannot assure you that we will not experience systems failures from power or telecommunications failure, acts of God or war, human error, natural disasters, fire, power loss, sabotage, hardware or software malfunctions or defects, computer viruses, intentional acts of vandalism and similar events. Any system failure that causes an interruption in service or decreases the responsiveness of our service, including failures caused by client error or misuse of our systems, could damage our reputation, business and brand name.

If we do not effectively manage our growth, our existing personnel and systems may be strained and our business may not operate efficiently.

In order to execute our business plan, we must grow significantly. This growth will place significant strain on our personnel, management systems and resources. We expect that the number of our employees, including technical and management-level employees, may continue to increase for the foreseeable future. We must continue to improve our operational and financial systems and managerial controls and procedures, and we will need to continue to expand, train and manage our technical workforce. We must also maintain close coordination among our technical, compliance, accounting, finance, marketing and sales organizations. We cannot assure you that we will manage our growth effectively, and failure to do so could result in our business operating inefficiently.

We operate in a rapidly evolving business environment. If we are unable to adapt our business effectively to keep pace with these changes, our operations will be adversely affected.

The pace of change in our market is extremely rapid. Operating in such a rapidly-changing business environment involves a high degree of risk. Our success will depend on our ability to adapt effectively to these changing market conditions.

If we are unable to keep up with rapid technological changes, we may not be able to compete effectively.

To remain competitive, we must continue to enhance and improve the responsiveness, functionality, accessibility and features of our proprietary software, network distribution systems and technologies. The financial services and e-commerce industries are characterized by rapid technological changes, changes in use and client requirements and preferences, frequent product and service introductions embodying new technologies and the emergence of new industry standards and practices that could render our existing proprietary technology and systems obsolete. Our success will depend, in part, on our ability to:

o develop and license leading technologies useful in our business;

o enhance our existing services;

o develop new services and technologies that address the increasingly sophisticated and varied needs of our existing and prospective clients; and

o respond to technological advances and emerging industry standards and practices on a cost-effective and timely basis.

The development of proprietary electronic trading technology entails significant technical, financial and business risks. Further, the adoption of new Internet, networking or telecommunications technologies may require us to devote substantial resources to modify and adapt our services. We cannot assure you that we will successfully implement new technologies or adapt our proprietary technology and transaction-processing systems to client requirements or emerging industry standards. We cannot assure you that we will be able to respond in a timely manner to changing market conditions or client requirements.

If we were to lose the services of members of management and employees who possess specialized market knowledge and technology skills, we may not be able to manage our operations effectively or develop new electronic marketplaces.

Our future success depends, in significant part, on the continued service of Howard Lutnick, our Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Frederick Varacchi, our President and Chief Operating Officer, and our other executive officers and managers and sales and technical personnel who possess extensive knowledge and technology skills in our markets. We cannot assure you that we would be able to find an appropriate replacement for Mr. Lutnick or Mr. Varacchi if the need

should arise. Any loss or interruption of Mr. Lutnick's or Mr. Varacchi's services could result in our inability to manage our operations effectively and/or develop new electronic marketplaces. We have not entered into employment agreements with and we do not have "key person" life insurance policies on any of our executive officers or other personnel. All of the members of our senior management team are also officers, partners or key employees of Cantor. As a result, they dedicate only a portion of their professional efforts to our business and operations. We cannot assure you that the time these persons devote to our business and operations in the future will be adequate and that we will not experience an adverse effect on our operations due to the demands placed on our management team by their other professional obligations. We intend to strive to provide high quality services that will allow us to establish and maintain long-term relationships with our clients. Our ability to do so will depend, in large part, upon the individual employees who represent us in our dealings with clients. The market for qualified programmers, technicians and sales persons is extremely competitive and has grown more so in recent periods as electronic commerce has experienced growth. We cannot assure you that we will be successful in our efforts to recruit and retain the required personnel.

If Cantor or we are unable to protect the intellectual property rights we license from Cantor or own, our ability to operate electronic marketplaces may be materially adversely affected.

Our business is dependent on proprietary technology and other intellectual property rights. We license our patented technology from Cantor. The license arrangement is exclusive, except in the event that (1) we are unwilling to provide to Cantor any requested services covered by the patents with respect to a marketplace and Cantor elects not to require us to do so, or we are unable to provide such services or (2) we do not exercise our right of first refusal to provide to Cantor electronic brokerage services with respect to a marketplace, in which case Cantor retains a limited right to use the patents and patent applications solely in connection with the operation of that marketplace. We cannot guarantee that the concepts which are the subject of the patents and patent applications covered by the license from Cantor are patentable or that issued patents are or will be valid and enforceable. Where patents are granted in the U.S., we can give no assurance that equivalent patents will be granted in Europe or elsewhere, as a result of differences in local laws affecting patentability and validity. Moreover, we cannot guarantee that Cantor's issued patents are valid and enforceable, or that third parties competing or intending to compete with us will not infringe any of these patents. Despite precautions we or Cantor has taken or may take to protect our intellectual property rights, it is possible that third parties may copy or otherwise obtain and use our proprietary technology without authorization. It is also possible that third parties may independently develop technologies similar to ours. It may be difficult for us to monitor unauthorized use of our proprietary technology and intellectual property rights. We cannot assure you that the steps we have taken will prevent misappropriation of our technology or intellectual property rights.

We use our eSpeed(sm) service mark for the services described herein and have registered that service mark in a number of jurisdictions around the world. Although several existing third-party registrations and applications for trademarks and servicemarks consisting of designations similar to ours in certain countries have come to light, they are for goods and services that are of a different type from those being offered under our eSpeed(sm) service mark. Although we are not

presently aware of any third-party objections to our use or registration of our eSpeed(sm) service mark in these countries, and believe we could defend against any third-party claims asserted in these countries, such registrations and applications could potentially affect the registration, and/or limit our use, of our eSpeed(sm) service mark in these countries, thereby requiring us to adopt and use another service mark for our services in such countries.

If it becomes necessary to protect or defend our intellectual property rights, we may have to resort to costly litigation.

We may have to resort to litigation to enforce our intellectual property rights, protect our trade secrets, determine the validity and scope of the proprietary rights of others or defend ourselves from claims of infringement, invalidity or unenforceability. We may incur substantial costs and diversion of resources as a result of litigation, even if we win. In the event we do not win, we may have to enter into royalty or licensing agreements. We cannot assure you that an agreement would be available to us on reasonable terms, if at all.

If our software licenses from third parties are terminated, our ability to operate our business may be materially adversely affected.

We license software from third parties, much of which is integral to our systems and our business. The licenses are terminable if we breach our obligations under the license agreements. If any of these relationships were terminated or if any of these third parties were to cease doing business, we may be forced to spend significant time and money to replace the licensed software. However, we cannot assure you that the necessary replacements will be available on reasonable terms, if at all.

If the strength of our domain names is diluted, the value of our proprietary rights may decrease.

We own many Internet domain names, including "www.espeed.com." The regulation of domain names in the U.S. and in foreign countries may change and the strength of our names could be diluted. We may not be able to prevent third parties from acquiring domain names that infringe or otherwise decrease the value of our trademarks and other proprietary rights.

If we infringe on patent rights or copyrights of others, we could become involved in costly litigation.

Patents or copyrights of third parties may have an important bearing on our ability to offer certain of our products and services. We cannot assure you that we are or will be aware of all patents or copyrights containing claims that may pose a risk of infringement by our products and services. In addition, patent applications in the U.S. are generally confidential until a patent is issued. As a result, we cannot evaluate the extent to which our products and services may be covered or asserted to be covered by claims contained in pending patent applications. In general, if one or more of our products or services were to infringe patents held by others, we may be required to stop developing or marketing the products or services, to obtain licenses to develop

and market the services from the holders of the patents or to redesign the products or services in such a way as to avoid infringing on the patent claims, which could limit the manner in which we conduct our operations.

Due to intense competition, our market share and financial performance could suffer.

The electronic trading and Internet-based financial and non-financial services markets are highly competitive and many of our competitors are more established and have greater financial resources than us. We expect that competition will intensify in the future. Many of our competitors also have greater market presence, engineering and marketing capabilities and technological and personnel resources than we do. As a result, as compared to us, our competitors may:

o develop and expand their network infrastructures and service offerings more efficiently or more quickly;

o adapt more swiftly to new or emerging technologies and changes in client requirements;

o take advantage of acquisitions and other opportunities more effectively;

o devote greater resources to the marketing and sale of their products and services; and

o leverage existing relationships with clients and strategic partners more effectively or exploit more recognized brand names to market and sell their services.

Our current and prospective competitors are numerous and include interdealer brokerage firms, technology companies and market data and information vendors, securities and futures exchanges, electronic communications networks, crossing systems, software companies, consortia, business-to-business marketplace infrastructure companies and niche market energy and other commodity business- to-business Internet-based trading systems.

We believe that we may also face competition from large computer software companies, media and technology companies and some securities brokerage firms that are currently our clients. In addition, Market Data Corporation, which is controlled by Iris Cantor and Rodney Fisher, has technology for electronic trading systems that, if provided to our competitors in the wholesale market, will be of substantial assistance to them in competing with us. Iris Cantor and Rodney Fisher are limited partners of Cantor.

The number of businesses providing Internet-based financial and non-financial services is rapidly growing, and other companies, in addition to those named above, have entered into or are forming joint ventures or consortia to provide services similar to those provided by us. Others may acquire the capabilities necessary to compete with us through acquisitions.

In the event we extend the application of our Interactive Matching(sm) technology to conducting or facilitating auctions of consumer goods and services over the Internet, we expect to compete with both online and traditional sellers of these products and services. The market for selling products and services over the Internet is new, rapidly evolving and intensely competitive. Current and new competitors can launch new sites at a relatively low cost. We expect we will potentially compete with a variety of companies with respect to each product or service we offer. We may face competition from a number of other large Internet companies that have expertise in developing online commerce and in facilitating Internet traffic, which could choose to compete with us either directly or indirectly through affiliations with other e-commerce companies. We cannot assure you that we will be able to compete effectively with such companies.

Because some of our clients have developed electronic trading networks, we compete with them in aspects of our business.

Consortia owned by some of our clients have developed electronic trading networks. Such consortia compete with us and our electronic marketplaces in some areas of our business and may compete with us in other areas in the future.

If we experience low trading volume in products, our profitability could suffer.

We have experienced significant fluctuations in the aggregate trading volume of products being traded in our marketplaces. We expect that fluctuations in the trading volume of products traded in our marketplaces will occur in the future from time to time and have a direct impact on our future operating results. This may cause significant fluctuations in our profitability when the trading volumes are low.

If adverse economic and political conditions occur, substantial declines in the U.S. and global financial services markets may result and our profitability could suffer.

The global financial services business is, by its nature, risky and volatile and is directly affected by many national and international factors that are beyond our control. Any one of these factors may cause a substantial decline in the U.S. and global financial services markets, resulting in reduced trading volume and turnover. These events could have a material adverse effect on our profitability. These factors include:

o economic and political conditions in the U.S. and elsewhere in the world;

o concerns over inflation and wavering institutional/consumer confidence levels;

o the availability of cash for investment by mutual funds and other wholesale and retail investors;

o fluctuating interest and exchange rates;

o legislative and regulatory changes; and

o currency values.

Because there is less U.S. Treasury debt outstanding, trading in our marketplaces may decline.

Our business is highly dependent upon the volume of bonds being traded through our eSpeed(sm) system. As the U.S. reduces its outstanding Treasury debt, there may be a decline in the volume of U.S. Treasury securities traded through our eSpeed(sm) system.

Because we expect to continue to expand our operations outside North America, we may face special economic and regulatory challenges that we may not be able to meet.

We operate electronic marketplaces throughout Europe and Asia and we plan to further expand our operations throughout these regions and other regions in the future. There are certain risks inherent in doing business in international markets, particularly in the regulated brokerage industry. These risks include:

o less developed automation in exchanges, depositories and national clearing systems;

o unexpected changes in regulatory requirements, tariffs and other trade barriers;

o difficulties in staffing and managing foreign operations;

o fluctuations in exchange rates;

o reduced protection for intellectual property rights;

o seasonal reductions in business activity during the summer months; and

o potentially adverse tax consequences.

We are required to comply with the laws and regulations of foreign governmental and regulatory authorities of each country in which we conduct business. These may include laws, rules and regulations relating to any aspect of the securities business, including sales methods, capital structure, record-keeping, broker-dealer and employee registration requirements and the conduct of directors, officers and employees. Any failure to develop effective compliance and reporting systems could result in regulatory penalties in the applicable jurisdiction.

The growth of the Internet as a means of conducting international business has also raised many legal issues regarding, among other things, the circumstances in which countries or other jurisdictions have the right to regulate Internet services that may be available to their citizens from service providers located elsewhere. In many cases, there are no laws, regulations, judicial decisions or governmental interpretations that clearly resolve these issues. This uncertainty may adversely affect our ability to use the Internet to expand our international operations, and creates

the risk that we could be subject to disciplinary sanctions or other penalties for failure to comply with applicable laws or regulations.

As we enter new markets, we may not be able to successfully adapt our technology and marketing strategy for use in those markets.

We are leveraging our eSpeed(sm) system to enter new markets. We cannot assure you that we will be able to successfully adapt our proprietary software, electronic distribution networks and technology for use in other markets. Even if we do adapt our software, networks and technology, we cannot assure you that we will be able to attract clients and compete successfully in any such new markets. We cannot assure you that our marketing efforts or our pursuit of any of these opportunities will be successful. If these efforts are not successful, we may realize less than expected earnings, which in turn could result in a decrease in the market value of our Class A common stock. Furthermore, these efforts may divert management attention or inefficiently utilize our resources. We intend to create electronic marketplaces for many vertical markets and extend into others, but there is no guarantee that we will be able to do so.

If we acquire other companies, we may not be able to integrate their operations effectively.

Our business strategy contemplates expansion through the acquisition of exchanges and other companies providing services or having technologies and operations that are complementary to ours. Acquisitions entail numerous risks, including:

o difficulties in the assimilation of acquired operations and products;

o diversion of management's attention from other business concerns;

o assumption of unknown material liabilities of acquired companies;

o amortization of acquired intangible assets, which would reduce future reported earnings; and

o potential loss of clients or key employees of acquired companies.

We cannot assure you that we will be able to integrate successfully any operations, personnel, services or products that might be acquired in the future, and our failure to do so could adversely affect our profitability and the value of our Class A common stock.

Because our business is subject to extensive government and other regulation, we may face restrictions with respect to the way we conduct our operations.

The Securities and Exchange Commission, NASD Regulation, Inc., Commodity Futures Trading Commission and other agencies extensively regulate the U.S. financial industry. Our international operations may become subject to similar regulations in specific jurisdictions. In addition, our activities in the Energy Vertical may be subject to regulation by the Federal Energy

Regulatory Commission under the Federal Power Act. Certain of our U.S. subsidiaries are required to comply strictly with the rules and regulations of these agencies. As a matter of public policy, these regulatory bodies are responsible for safeguarding the integrity of the securities and other financial markets and protecting the interests of investors in those markets. Most aspects of our U.S. broker-dealer subsidiaries are highly regulated, including:

o the way we deal with our clients;

o our capital requirements;

o our financial and Securities and Exchange Commission reporting practices;

o required record keeping and record retention procedures;

o the licensing of our employees; and

o the conduct of our directors, officers, employees and affiliates.

If we fail to comply with any of these laws, rules or regulations, we may be subject to censure, fines, cease-and-desist orders, suspension of our business, suspensions of personnel or other sanctions, including revocation of registration as a broker-dealer. Changes in laws or regulations or in governmental policies could have a material adverse effect on the conduct of our business. These agencies have broad powers to investigate and enforce compliance and punish non-compliance with their rules and regulations. We cannot assure you that we and/or our directors, officers and employees will be able to fully comply with, and will not be subject to, claims or actions by these agencies.

The products and services we offer through our electronic marketplaces are likely to be regulated by federal, state and foreign governments. Our ability to provide such services will be affected by these regulations. In addition, as we expand our business to other vertical markets, it is likely that we will be subject to additional federal, state and foreign regulations. The implementation of unfavorable regulations or unfavorable interpretations of existing regulations by courts or regulatory bodies could require us to incur significant compliance costs or cause the development of affected markets to become impractical.

Because we are subject to risks associated with net capital requirements, we may not be able to engage in operations that require significant capital.

The Securities and Exchange Commission, Commodity Futures Trading Commission and various other regulatory agencies have stringent rules and regulations with respect to the maintenance of specific levels of net capital by regulated companies. Net capital, which is assets minus liabilities, is the net worth of a broker or dealer, less deductions for certain types of assets. If a firm fails to maintain the required net capital, it may be subject to suspension or revocation of registration by the Securities and Exchange Commission or Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and suspension or expulsion by these regulators could ultimately lead to the firm's

liquidation. If these net capital rules are changed or expanded, or if there is an unusually large charge against net capital, operations that require the intensive use of capital would be limited. Also, our ability to withdraw capital from broker- dealer subsidiaries could be restricted, which in turn could limit our ability to pay dividends, repay debt and redeem or purchase shares of our outstanding stock. A large operating loss or charge against net capital could adversely affect our ability to expand or even maintain our present levels of business, which could have a material adverse effect on our business. In addition, we may become subject to net capital requirements in foreign jurisdictions.

Because we offer access to some of our marketplaces to online retail brokers and others, we are subject to risks relating to uncertainty in the regulation of the Internet.

There are currently few laws or regulations that specifically regulate communications or commerce on the Internet. However, laws and regulations may be adopted in the future that address issues such as user privacy, pricing, taxation and the characteristics and quality of products and services. For example, the Telecommunications Act sought to prohibit transmitting various types of information and content over the Internet. Several telecommunications companies have petitioned the Federal Communications Commission to regulate Internet service providers and other online service providers in a manner similar to long distance telephone carriers and to impose access fees on those companies. This could increase the cost of transmitting data over the Internet. Moreover, it may take years to determine the extent to which existing laws relating to issues such as property ownership, libel and personal privacy are applicable to the Internet. Any new laws or regulations relating to the Internet could adversely affect our business.

Because brokerage services involve substantial risks of liability, we may become subject to risks of litigation.

Many aspects of our business, and the businesses of our clients, involve substantial risks of liability. Dissatisfied clients frequently make claims regarding quality of trade execution, improperly settled trades, mismanagement or even fraud against their service providers. We and our clients may become subject to these claims as the result of failures or malfunctions of systems and services provided by us and third parties may seek recourse against us. We could incur significant legal expenses defending claims, even those without merit. An adverse resolution of any lawsuits or claims against us could result in our obligation to pay substantial damages.

In addition, we are subject to legal proceedings and claims against Cantor and its affiliates as a result of the transactions surrounding our formation. Although Cantor has agreed to indemnify us against claims or liabilities arising from our assets or operations prior to the formation transactions, we cannot assure you that such claims or litigation will not harm our business.

If we cannot deter employee misconduct, we may be harmed.

There have been a number of highly publicized cases involving fraud or other misconduct by employees in the financial services industry in recent years, and we run the risk that employee misconduct could occur. Misconduct by employees could include hiding unauthorized or unsuccessful activities from us. In either case, this type of conduct could result in unknown and unmanaged risks or losses. Employee misconduct could also involve the improper use of confidential information, which could result in regulatory sanctions and serious reputational harm. It is not always possible to deter employee misconduct, and the precautions we take to prevent and detect this activity may not be effective in all cases.

Because our business is developing, we cannot predict our future capital needs or our ability to secure additional financing.

We anticipate, based on management's experience and current industry trends, that our existing cash resources will be sufficient to meet our anticipated working capital and capital expenditure requirements for at least the next 12 months. However, we believe that there are a significant number of capital intensive opportunities for us to maximize our growth and strategic position, including, among other things, acquisitions, joint ventures, strategic alliances or other investments. As a result, we may need to raise additional funds to:

o increase the regulatory net capital necessary to support our operations;

o support more rapid growth in our business;

o develop new or enhanced services and products;

o respond to competitive pressures;

o acquire complementary technologies;

o enter into strategic alliances;

o acquire companies with marketplace or other specific domain expertise; and

o respond to unanticipated requirements.

We cannot assure you that we will be able to obtain additional financing when needed on terms that are acceptable, if at all.

The market price of our Class A common stock may fluctuate and future sales of our shares could adversely affect the market price of our Class A common stock.

The market price of our Class A common stock may fluctuate widely, depending upon many factors, including our perceived prospects and the prospects of the financial and other business-to-business marketplaces in general, differences between our actual financial and operating results and those expected by investors and analysts, changes in analysts' recommendations or

projections, seasonality, changes in general valuations for Internet and e-commerce-related companies, changes in general economic or market conditions and broad market fluctuations.

Future sales of our shares also could adversely affect the market price of our Class A common stock. If our existing stockholders sell a large number of shares, or if we issue a large number of shares of our common stock in connection with future acquisitions, strategic alliances or otherwise, the market price of our Class A common stock could decline significantly. Moreover, the perception in the public market that these stockholders might sell shares of Class A common stock could depress the market price of our Class A common stock.

We have registered under the Securities Act 10,630,000 shares of our Class A common stock, which are reserved for issuance upon exercise of options granted under our stock option plan. Since our board of directors has determined, subject to stockholder approval, to increase the amount of shares available for issuance under our stock option plan, we will likely register additional shares. In addition, if we increase our total outstanding shares of common stock, we will register additional shares of Class A common stock so that the stock available for issuance under our stock option plan will be registered. Once registered, these shares can be sold in the public market upon issuance, subject to restrictions under the securities laws applicable to resales by affiliates. In addition, we have registered under the Securities Act 425,000 shares of our Class A common stock issuable under our stock purchase plan. We also will be issuing new shares of our Class A common stock in connection with our matching program for our 401(k) plan. The maximum number of new shares we will be issuing in connection with our 401(k) plan is $3,000 worth per employee per year.

On June 9, 2001, approximately 2.9 million shares of our Class A common stock that have been distributed to partners of Cantor as part of a deferred stock distribution by Cantor will become eligible for sale in the public market, subject to volume, manner of sale and other applicable restrictions, under Rule
144. Approximately 750,000 of these shares are subject to a 90 day lock-up agreement with the underwriters of a proposed public offering by us and certain selling stockholders of shares of our Class A common stock.

In addition, we have issued shares of our Class A common stock, warrants and convertible preferred stock and have granted registration rights in connection with certain of our strategic alliances. See "Item 13. Certain Relationships and Related Transactions."

RISKS RELATED TO OUR RELATIONSHIP WITH CANTOR

Because we currently depend on Cantor's business, events which adversely affect Cantor's business may have a material adverse effect on our revenues.

Since inception, we have recognized substantially all of our revenues in connection with our relationship with Cantor. Consequently, any events which adversely affect Cantor's business or operating results could have a material adverse effect on our most significant source of revenues.

We are a general creditor of Cantor to the extent that there are transaction revenues and system service fees owing to us from Cantor. Events that adversely affect Cantor's financial position and ability to remit our share of transaction revenues and system service fees could have a material adverse effect on our revenues.

Conflicts of interest and competition with Cantor may arise.

Various conflicts of interest between us and Cantor may arise in the future in a number of areas relating to our past and ongoing relationships, including competitive business activities, potential acquisitions of businesses or properties, the election of new directors, payment of dividends, incurrence of indebtedness, tax matters, financial commitments, marketing functions, indemnity arrangements, service arrangements, issuances of our capital stock, sales or distributions by Cantor of its shares of our common stock and the exercise by Cantor of control over our management and affairs. Our Joint Services Agreement with Cantor provides that, in some circumstances, Cantor can unilaterally determine the commissions that will be charged to clients for effecting trades in marketplaces in which we collaborate with Cantor. The determination of the nature of commissions charged to clients does not affect the allocation of revenues that Cantor and we share with respect to those transactions. However, in circumstances in which Cantor determines to charge clients lower commissions, the amount that we receive in respect of our share of the commissions will be correspondingly decreased. A majority of our directors and officers also serve as directors and/or officers of Cantor. Simultaneous service as an eSpeed director or officer and service as a director or officer, or status as a partner, of Cantor could create, or appear to create, potential conflicts of interest when such directors, officers and/or partners are faced with decisions that could have different implications for us and for Cantor. Mr. Lutnick, our Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, is the sole stockholder of the managing general partner of Cantor. As a result, Mr. Lutnick controls Cantor. As of February 8, 2001, Mr. Lutnick controlled approximately 95.3% of the combined voting power of all classes of our voting stock. Mr. Lutnick's simultaneous service as our Chairman and Chief Executive Officer and his control of Cantor could create or appear to create potential conflicts of interest when Mr. Lutnick is faced with decisions that could have different implications for us and for Cantor.

Because our Joint Services Agreement with Cantor has a perpetual term and contains non-competition provisions and restrictions on our ability to pursue strategic transactions, this agreement may become burdensome to our business.

Although Cantor has agreed, subject to certain conditions, not to compete with us in providing electronic brokerage services, Cantor is currently engaged in securities transaction and other financial instruments execution and processing operations and other activities that are related to the electronic trading services we provide. Our Joint Services Agreement obligates us to perform technology support and other services for Cantor at cost, whether or not related to our electronic brokerage services, sets forth the ongoing revenue sharing arrangements between Cantor and us and subjects us and Cantor to non-competition obligations. The Joint Services Agreement precludes us from entering into lines of business in which Cantor now or in the future may engage, or providing, or assisting any third party in providing, voice-assisted brokerage services, clearance, settlement and fulfillment services and related services, except under limited

circumstances. Although we believe Cantor has no plans to form, acquire or commence any other operations similar to ours, the Joint Services Agreement permits Cantor to perform, in limited circumstances, electronic brokerage operations. In addition, the Joint Services Agreement imposes limitations on our ability to pursue strategic alliances, joint ventures, partnerships, business combinations, acquisitions and similar transactions. Because the Joint Services Agreement has a perpetual term, even in the event of a breach by one of the parties, and does not provide for modification under its terms, this agreement may become burdensome for us, may distract us from focusing on our internal operations, may deter or discourage a takeover of our company and may limit our ability to expand our operations.

Because agreements between us and Cantor are not the result of arm's-length negotiations, we may receive lower commissions from, and pay higher service fees to, Cantor than we would with respect to third party service providers.

In connection with the formation transactions, we entered into Assignment and Assumption Agreements, an Administrative Services Agreement, a Joint Services Agreement and several other agreements with Cantor relating to the provision of services to each other and third parties. These agreements are not the result of arm's-length negotiations because Cantor owns and controls us. As a result, the prices charged to us or by us for services provided under the agreements may be higher or lower than prices that may be charged by third parties and the terms of these agreements may be generally less favorable to us than those that we could have negotiated with third parties.

Because we depend on services and access to operating assets provided by third parties to Cantor, we may not have recourse against those third parties.

Many of the assets and services provided by Cantor under the terms of the Administrative Services Agreement are leased or provided to Cantor by third-party vendors. As a result, in the event of a dispute between Cantor and a third-party vendor, we could lose access to, or the right to use, as applicable, office space, personnel, corporate services and operating assets. In such a case, we would have no recourse with respect to the third-party vendor. Our inability to use these services and operating assets for any reason, including any termination of the Administrative Services Agreement between us and Cantor or the agreements between Cantor and third-party vendors, could result in serious interruptions of our operations.

Our reputation may be affected by actions taken by Cantor and entities that are related to Cantor.

Cantor currently is our most significant client. Cantor holds direct and indirect ownership and management interests in numerous other entities that engage in a broad range of financial services and securities-related activities. Actions taken by, and events involving, Cantor or these related companies which are perceived negatively by the securities markets, or the public generally, could have a material adverse effect on us and could affect the price of our Class A common stock. In addition, events which negatively affect the financial condition of Cantor may negatively affect us. These events could cause Cantor to lose clients that may trade in our

marketplaces, could impair Cantor's ability to perform its obligations under the Joint Services Agreement, the Administrative Services Agreement and other agreements Cantor enters into with us and could cause Cantor to liquidate investments, including by selling or otherwise transferring shares of our common stock.

If we become subject to litigation and other legal proceedings, we may be harmed.

From time to time, we and Cantor may become involved in litigation and other legal proceedings relating to claims arising from our and their operations in the normal course of business. Cantor is currently subject to a number of legal proceedings that could affect us. We cannot assure you that these or other litigation or legal proceedings will not materially affect our ability to conduct our business in the manner that we expect or otherwise adversely affect us. See note 4 of the notes to our consolidated financial statements.

RISKS RELATED TO E-COMMERCE AND THE INTERNET

If electronic marketplaces do not continue to grow, we will not be able to achieve our business objectives.

The success of our business plan depends on our ability to create interactive electronic marketplaces for a wide range of products. Historically, securities and commodities markets operated through open outcry formats which have recently begun to be supplanted by new systems that match buyers and sellers electronically. The energy markets in which we participate through TradeSpark operate through phone-based and bulletin-board formats and have recently begun to transact electronically. The utilization of our products and services depends on the continued acceptance, adoption and growth of electronic markets. We cannot assure you that the growth and acceptance of the use of electronic markets will continue.

If e-commerce and Internet usage does not continue to grow, we will not be able to achieve our business objectives.

Our strategic and financial objectives would be adversely impacted if e- commerce adoption and usage does not continue to grow. Business-to-business use of the Internet as a medium of commerce is a recent phenomenon and is subject to a high level of uncertainty. Internet usage may be inhibited for a number of reasons, including:

o access costs;

o inadequate network infrastructure;

o security concerns;

o uncertainty of legal, regulatory and tax issues concerning the use of the Internet;

o concerns regarding ease of use, accessibility and reliability;

o inconsistent quality of service; and

o lack of availability of cost-effective, high-speed service.

If Internet usage grows, the Internet infrastructure may not be able to support the demands placed on it, or the Internet's performance and reliability may decline. Similarly, Web sites have experienced interruptions in their service as a result of outages and other delays occurring throughout the Internet network infrastructure. If these outages or delays occur frequently, use of the Internet as a commercial or business medium could grow more slowly or decline. Even if Internet usage continues to grow, online trading in the wholesale securities markets, and in particular the fixed income securities and futures markets, may not be accepted by our clients. This could negatively affect the growth of our business.

Our networks and those of our third-party service providers may be vulnerable to security risks, which could make our clients hesitant to use our electronic marketplaces.

We expect the secure transmission of confidential information over public networks to be a critical element of our operations. Our networks and those of our third-party service providers, including Cantor and associated clearing corporations, and our clients may be vulnerable to unauthorized access, computer viruses and other security problems. Persons who circumvent security measures could wrongfully use our information or cause interruptions or malfunctions in our operations, which could make our clients hesitant to use our electronic marketplaces. We may be required to expend significant resources to protect against the threat of security breaches or to alleviate problems, including reputational harm and litigation, caused by any breaches. Although we intend to continue to implement industry-standard security measures, we cannot assure you that those measures will be sufficient.

RISKS RELATED TO OUR CAPITAL STRUCTURE

Because the voting control of our common stock is concentrated among the holders of our Class B common stock, the market price of our Class A common stock may be adversely affected by disparate voting rights.

As of February 8, 2001, Cantor beneficially owned approximately 95.2% of the combined voting power of all classes of our voting stock. As long as Cantor beneficially owns a majority of the combined voting power of our common stock, it will have the ability, without the consent of the public stockholders, to elect all of the members of our board of directors and to control our management and affairs. In addition, it will be able to determine the outcome of matters submitted to a vote of our stockholders for approval and will be able to cause or prevent a change in control of our company. In certain circumstances, the shares of our Class B common stock issued to Cantor upon consummation of the formation transactions may be transferred without conversion to our Class A common stock.

The holders of our Class A common stock and Class B common stock have substantially identical rights, except that holders of our Class A common stock are entitled to one vote per share, while holders of our Class B common stock are entitled to 10 votes per share on all matters to be voted on by stockholders in general. This differential in the voting rights and our ability to issue additional Class B common stock could adversely affect the market price of our Class A common stock.

Delaware law and our charter may make a takeover of our company more difficult and dilute your percentage of ownership of our common stock.

Provisions of Delaware law, such as its business combination statute, may have the effect of delaying, deferring or preventing a change in control of our company. In addition, our Amended and Restated Certificate of Incorporation authorizes the issuance of preferred stock, which our board of directors can create and issue without prior stockholder approval and with rights senior to those of our common stock, as well as additional shares of our Class B common stock and warrants to purchase our common stock. Any such issuances would make a takeover of our company more difficult and may dilute your percentage ownership of our common stock. Our Amended and Restated Certificate of Incorporation and our Second Amended and Restated By-Laws include provisions which restrict the ability of our stockholders to take action by written consent and provide for advance notice for stockholder proposals and director nominations. These provisions may have the effect of delaying or preventing changes of control or management of our company, even if such transactions would have significant benefits to our stockholders. As a result, these provisions could limit the price some investors might be willing to pay in the future for shares of our Class A common stock.

Delaware law may protect decisions of our board of directors that have a different effect on holders of our Class A and Class B common stock.

Stockholders may not be able to challenge decisions that have an adverse effect upon holders of our Class A common stock if our board of directors acts in a disinterested, informed manner with respect to these decisions, in good faith and in the belief that it is acting in the best interests of our stockholders. Delaware law generally provides that a board of directors owes an equal duty to all stockholders, regardless of class or series, and does not have separate or additional duties to either group of stockholders, subject to applicable provisions set forth in a company's charter.