London Stock Exchange

The London exchange said it is merging with a group of international securities dealers to form a 24-hour electronic marketplace for stocks, a venture that would compete with exchanges worldwide. The exchange said it would change its name to the International Stock Exchange after merging with the International Securities Regulatory Organization.

Maybe it was the soaring unemployment, or possibly the deep debt crisis. But as Greece struggles with its myriad troubles, its largest company, Coca-Cola Hellenic, is jumping ship to more stable ground. The company, one of the world's largest Coke bottlers, is the biggest Greece-based company by market value, at $7.6 billion. But on Thursday, the company said it is switching its main stock listing from Athens to London and relocating its corporate headquarters to Switzerland as it looks to "enhance liquidity" for shareholders.

The Nasdaq Stock Market on Friday offered to pay $4.2 billion in cash to buy the London Stock Exchange, but its bold bid to create the first major transatlantic stock exchange company was quickly rebuffed. The London Stock Exchange said it rejected the surprise bid as too low. The offer's per-share value is 8% more than the exchange's current share price. It was the third bid the exchange has drawn in 15 months, and it may not be the last.

A senior clergyman resigned Monday over St. Paul's Cathedral's handling of anticapitalist protesters camped outside the church, the second cleric lost to an increasingly tense standoff involving God, mammon and their earthly representatives. Graeme Knowles said his position as dean of the cathedral "was becoming untenable" in the face of mounting criticism of the way St. Paul's has responded to the tent camp that has sprouted outside its imposing porticoed entrance near the banks of the Thames.

A bomb apparently planted by the Irish Republican Army exploded Friday in the visitors' gallery at the London Stock Exchange, but there were no casualties because the building had been evacuated after a telephoned warning. It was the first such warning since the start of what appears to be a summer bombing campaign against political and financial targets in London. About 30 minutes before the blast at 8:49 a.m.

Four new stock exchange systems are poised to slice into an investment pie that has been, up until now, controlled by the London Stock Exchange. The European Assn. of Securities Dealers (EASD) is the latest group to announce its intention to launch an automated screen-based trading system Easdaq, or EASD Automated Quotation, offering investors an alternative to the London Stock Exchange.

The London and Toronto stock exchanges have abandoned plans for a $3.4-billion tie-up, leaving both in play in a world facing a wave of exchange consolidation. The failure of the bid from the London Stock Exchange for TMX Group opens the door to a hostile offer for the operator of the Toronto Stock Exchange from Canada's Maple Group consortium, a made-in-Canada alternative to a takeover that would have put a big domestic asset in foreign hands. It also turns the spotlight on the London Stock Exchange as a target as exchanges consolidate to grow and broaden their geographic reach, as well as to fight off rivals and new market entrants.

Nine men accused of terrorism and conspiracy to blow up high-profile targets that reportedly included the U.S. Embassy and the London Stock Exchange in a Christmas bombing campaign made their first appearance in a central London court Monday. Most of the nine, ages 17 to 28, are of Bangladeshi origin. They were among 12 men arrested a week ago in three cities across Britain. Three were released without charge. They were charged late Sunday after a weeklong interrogation by counter-terrorism police at a London police station.

Nasdaq Stock Market Inc.'s plan to unload its London Stock Exchange stake may put one frustrating bid attempt behind it but increases the need to succeed in its next European foray. That's far from a sure thing. Nasdaq's $3.7-billion friendly takeover bid for Nordic bourse operator OMX faces an aggressive challenge from state-owned exchange operator Borse Dubai, which last week offered a 13% premium over Nasdaq's bid for the Swedish prize.

German stock exchange Deutsche Boerse said Monday that it had agreed to buy International Securities Exchange Holdings Inc., operator of the second-largest U.S. market for options, for $2.8 billion. With shareholders of New York-based International Securities getting a premium of 50% for their shares, the offer was viewed on Wall Street as one of the most aggressive during a period of growing consolidation among global exchanges.

The London Stock Exchange plans to cut the minimum size of price changes permitted on some stocks on its markets, a move aimed at reducing trading costs. The so-called tick size on FTSE 100 stocks priced between 10 pence and 199.9 pence will fall to 0.1 pence from 0.25 pence starting March 19. The calculation will take place in real time depending on the share price.

The Nasdaq Stock Market Inc. failed for the second time in a year to win control of the London Stock Exchange, revealing Saturday that its $5.3-billion hostile bid had been spurned by the British bourse's shareholders. Nasdaq, which abandoned its first attempt at the London exchange several months ago, had extended its current offer by two weeks in an attempt to win over more shareholders -- a move that proved fruitless. In the end, the New York-based exchange received acceptances worth just 0.

Tokyo Stock Exchange President Taizo Nishimuro said Tuesday that negotiations for an alliance with the New York Stock Exchange were "very close" to completion and that he expected an announcement to be made as early as today. Nishimuro and NYSE Group Inc.'s chief executive, John Thain, have met several times during the last week about forging greater cooperation between the two exchanges.

The London Stock Exchange on Tuesday pledged to raise its dividend for next year by at least 50% as it asked shareholders to reject a "wholly inadequate" $5.3-billion hostile takeover offer from Nasdaq Stock Market Inc. The London exchange issued a bullish profit forecast for 2007, saying it expected its bottom line to rise more than 58%, which it said would support a higher cash dividend.