'Fortune': London to Press on with 'iX' Deal Amid Reports of Yet Another Bidder
DEBORAH MARCHINI, CNN ANCHOR: There may be yet another bidder for the London Stock Exchange. Just a few days after Stockholm exchange made an offer, Euronext reportedly has an offer of its own.</s>DAVID HAFFENREFFER, CNN ANCHOR: Euronext is the three-way combination of the Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam bourses, whose own merger has yet to be finalized. And now Janet Guyon, of "Fortune" magazine, joins us now from London. This was an unexpected cobbling together of a bid or no?</s>JANET GUYON, LONDON BUREAU CHIEF, "FORTUNE": Somewhat unexpected, David. But the truth is the London Stock Exchange has been looking for an alternative to the Swedish bid for it, for some time now. There have been some members of the London stock -- some shareholders of the London stock exchange who haven't been happy with the proposed merger between London and the Frankfurt exchange. So, the idea that this hostile bid from the Swedes is opening up other possibilities is somewhat not surprising. What appears to be happening now is that this proposed merger between Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam, the Euronext group, is putting -- appears to be getting financing or looking for financing to put a bid together for the London Stock Exchange. I talked to the spokesman for the Paris bourse earlier today, and she wouldn't really comment on what's been reported, but she said we observe the situation with much interest. So that does indicate that probably they are looking at trying to make a counterbid for the London Stock Exchange. Now, the other player in this is Milan. The Milan bourse has also come out and said -- to say, we too would like to be part of a London exchange. So what we may have going here is a counter bid to this hostile bid from the Swedes, by the Deutsche bourse, Euronext, and the Milan Exchange. It's possible that all these exchanges will get together in order to bid for the London exchange.</s>MARCHINI: The combination of exchanges, of course, creates a bigger global market, and presumably creates economies of scale for the exchanges. But what's the impact on the average investor who owns companies that trade on these exchanges?</s>GUYON: Well, you know, quite frankly, I think it would be the great if all these guys could work out their problems and get together in some grand European merger. I think the chances of all of these exchanges getting together aren't that great because of the various disputes between them. But, for investors, it would mean lower trading costs, more access to more stocks across Europe. Right now, it's quite difficult for an ordinary retail investor in one country to buy stock in another country because of all these exchanges. I think it would be good for U.S. investors -- I -- as well, because they would have access to a sort of a more complete exchange. They could go in and by a German stock on the London exchange, it would be transparent. So certainly, for investors, the combination of these exchanges in Europe would make it much easier to trade cross- border, to buy shares in European companies, regardless of the country.</s>MARCHINI: All right, Janet Guyon, "Fortune" magazine, thanks so much for the update.