Nasdaq Readies Bid For New York Stock Exchange

(Reuters) - Nasdaq OMX Group Inc NDAQ.Q is preparing an offer for NYSE Euronext (NYX.N) and the bid could come as early as this week, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday, citing people familiar with the matter.

Under the proposed deal to counter Deutsche Boerse AG's (DB1Gn.DE) more than $9 billion offer for NYSE, Nasdaq would finance the transaction with up to $5 billion in debt and sell NYSE's Liffe derivatives business to IntercontinentalExchange Inc (ICE.N), the report said.

Earlier on Monday, deal publication DealReporter reported Nasdaq is in advanced talks with lenders about funding a hostile bid. The exchange operator would finance the bid with about $5 billion in debt from banks led by Bank of America Corp (BAC.N) and $5 billion in asset sales, DealReporter said.

Shares of NYSE Euronext rose 4.5 percent to $36.55.

A source familiar with the situation told Reuters last month that Nasdaq was exploring options that include teaming up with a partner on a rival bid for NYSE Euronext.

Pressure is mounting on global bourses to seek partnerships to counter the threat from bigger rivals and alternative trading platforms, and to cut costs.

In a span of few weeks, Deutsche Boerse agreed to buy NYSE, the London Stock Exchange Group Plc (LSE.L) announced a deal to take over Canadian stock market operator TMX Group (X.TO), and BATS Global Markets said it will buy peer Chi-X Europe.

(Reporting by Paritosh Bansal, writing by Soyoung Kim; Editing by Bernard Orr)

Copyright 2011 Thomson Reuters. Click for Restrictions.

Comments

[floodmfx]

08:20 AM on 03/15/2011

You posted a link to some spam / advertisement stock web-site.

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[reshmi1]

01:06 AM on 03/15/2011

Yes! Go NASDAQ! Pull out all the stops... make this happen. Woohoo! Keep NYSE in U.S. hands.

Man, I couldn't be happier. I hope it's really true and comes to fruition. Good luck NASDAQ/NYSE.

I must confess, though, to some trepidation as to what a combined exchange might be named. In an effort to be of assistance, I would like to propose:

National and New York Association of Securities Dealers and a Stock Exchange with Quotations some of which are Automated, or the NNYASDSEQA for short.

Um. Maybe not. Forget I mentioned it. http://tinyurl.com/6296cer