The NASDAQ Goes Shopping in London

The bidding war for the London Stock Exchange heats up. The newest player is the NASDAQ. The Economist has the story:

Londoners following the LSE bidding saga had become so used to guessing games about continental exchanges, notably the pan-European Euronext and Germany’s Deutsche Börse, that the Americans’ hostile bid late last week came as something of a surprise. It shouldn’t have. NASDAQ tried unsuccessfully to enter Europe once before with a start-up and has in the past held tentative talks with the LSE. Its cash offer of £9.50 ($16.60) a share, which would cost the Americans £2.4 billion, makes the preceding bid—£5.80, from Australia’s Macquarie Bank, only three months ago—look downright stingy.
NASDAQ’s offer was rejected outright by the LSE’s management, but is being considered by big shareholders. If the merger does go ahead, it would be a quantum leap in the consolidation of financial exchanges. It could also raise difficult questions of who should regulate the combined entity, and how. A merged firm would be second only to NYSE Group—as the newly listed New York Stock Exchange styles itself—in market capitalisation.

Posted by on March 17th, 2006 at 1:26 pm


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