Why is NASDAQ looking to take over the London Stock Exchange with a hostile bid??

Why is NASDAQ looking to take over the London Stock Exchange with a hostile bid??

www.telegraph.co.uk.../money/2006/12/12/bcnas12.xml

Nasdaq has revealed for the first time that it would be willing to take control of the London Stock Exchange with little more than 50pc of the British bourse's shares.

The news is a significant development because the US technology exchange previously indicated it would need to control 90pc of the LSE's shares before a takeover could be enacted.

Is there something to this? Can somebody find out more about this? About who is going to benefit, and why?

thanks,

[edit on 12-12-2006 by TheBandit795]

THe exchanges are hot items in the investment world right now.

The NYSE has made a recent acquisition and the NASDAQ is just trying to keep up and not lose any competitive advantage to the NYSE.

The New York Mercantile Exchange just went public on Nov 17 2006 and was up over 100% the first day. The Chicago Mercantile Exchange went public in 2003 and is up over 1000%. The NYSE and NASDAQ have both had several hundred percent moves in their stocks since going public. Growth through acquisitions is needed to justify these overinflated stock prices and thats why NASDAQ is trying to buy the London exchange.

Thanks for the info ets! Appreciate it.

I don't agree that the aquisitions are being used to justify "over-inflated" stock prices...especially in regards to an Exchange which is very affluent. And remember that Deutsche Bank also made a bid for the London Exchange also a "hostile" take-over.