A curious business deal
From
FOX News/AP:
Arabs to Buy 20 Percent of Nasdaq, Politicians Question Deal
Nasdaq Stock Market Inc. struck a complex deal to sell a 20 percent stake to the state-owned Borse Dubai in return for control of Sweden's leading stock market, but the plan met with some questions from U.S. politicians concerned it would raise security issues.
The sale of the Nasdaq stake is part of a flurry of cross-border handshaking unveiled Thursday that holds potential to remake the already shifting landscape of global stock exchanges.
If enacted, the Nasdaq deal would let the exchange meet a long-held goal of planting a flag overseas as its larger rival, the New York Stock Exchange, did this year with the acquisition of Paris-based Euronext.
Nasdaq's plan would allow it to sidestep a further bidding war with cash-rich Borse Dubai for Sweden's OMX while Dubai gains footholds in both Nasdaq and the London Stock Exchange. Nasdaq Stock Market Inc. would pay Dubai 11.4 billion kronor ($1.72 billion) in cash. Borse Dubai would get a 19.99 percent stake in Nasdaq and two of 16 board seats in combined Nasdaq-OMX. Borse Dubai's voting rights would be limited to 5 percent, however, perhaps to help assuage concerns that a Middle Eastern government would for the first time own a sizable chunk of a U.S. exchange.
Well, Dubai is nominally friendly to the West - it is concentrating on building up wealth to sustain it through its post-petroleum days so there is hope that this isn't as bad an idea as it sounds initially. But still, the whole
camel's nose under the tent story comes to mind...
Posted by DaveH at September 24, 2007 10:09 AM