Report: NY Stock Exchange may consider bid for London Stock Exchange

NEW YORK (AP) _ The New York Stock Exchange is considering entering the bidding war for the London Stock Exchange, according to a British newspaper report. <br/><br/>The Observer of London said Sunday

Monday, October 31st 2005, 10:13 am

By: News On 6

NEW YORK (AP) _ The New York Stock Exchange is considering entering the bidding war for the London Stock Exchange, according to a British newspaper report.

The Observer of London said Sunday that NYSE Chief Executive John Thain has lined up a bid for the London exchange, which has been a takeover target for at least a year. European exchange owner Euronext and Germany's Deutsche Bourse are both a possible acquirer of the LSE, while the Observer reported that Australia's Macquarie Bank is considering a hostile bid for the exchange.

The NYSE had no comment on the report. The Big Board is in the midst of its own acquisition of Archipelago Holdings Inc., an all-electronic exchange, in a deal that would transform the not-for-profit NYSE into a publicly traded, for-profit corporation.

The NYSE-Archipelago deal must be approved by the owners of the 1,366 seats on the NYSE as well as Archipelago shareholders. If both sides, due to vote Dec. 6, approve the deal, the new NYSE Group Inc. would come into being early in the first quarter of 2006. Until then, the NYSE would be hard pressed to gather the equity capital or borrowing capacity to mount a bid for the London exchange.