NASDAQ buy stake in London Stock Exchange

The NASDAQ Stock Market (Nasdaq:NDAQ) has confirmed that they have bought a near-15 percent stake in the London Stock Exchange (LSE.L). This deal makes them the largest single shareholder in LSE.

The deal is also expected to raise speculations that NASDAQ might renew their pursuit of the London exchange. They had earlier dropped a proposed 2.4-billion-pound, 9.50 pounds-a-share cash offer for the LSE last month.

Market analysts believe that this stake would give NASDAQ enough grunt to go for the complete acquisition of the Europe’s largest stock market. NASDAQ paid around 448 million pounds for this 14.99 percent stake in the London Stock Exchange.

The deal saw them purchasing about 35 million LSE shares from Threadneedle Asset Management Ltd at around 11.75 pounds a share. This is around a 13% premium over LSE’s closing price of 10.385 pounds on Tuesday.

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