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• Tuesday, 22 May 2012

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• NYSE Euronext/Deutsche Boerse Deal Inches Forward - 14 July 2011

Deutsche Boerse shareholders, representing up to 60 percent of the German exchange's voting shares, indicated on Wednesday just hours before the close of the deal that they approve of the proposal to merge with NYSE Euronext. While 75 percent is required for the deal to move forward, it is reportedly quite common for institutional investors to hold back tendering their shares until just before an offer ends. Based on past trends, analysts have voiced confidence that the 75 percent requirement will be attained. The merger of these two historic exchanges will result in the largest stock exchange in the world. However, there is still plenty of red tape to cut through, and scrutiny by anti-trust authorities to be dealt with before it is a done deal.

• Nasdaq/ICE Bid for NYSE Fails - 11 April 2011

The New York Stock Exchange board of directors has rejected the merger bid by Nasdaq/ICE in favor of the deal with Deutsche Börse, expressing the belief that the influential German exchange is offering what it termed as "substantially more long-term value for shareholders". However, while expressing disappointment in the decision, spokesperson for Nasdaq, Frank De Maria noted that it is their belief that this response by NYSE "clearly does not reflect the best interest of their shareholders".

• AT&T Proposes Merger With T-Mobile - 24 March 2011

The telecom sector of the US economy is a hive of merger and acquisition activity that investors are no doubt following with intense interest. The latest activity to hit the news is the planned $39 billion merger between AT&T (NYSE: T)and T-Mobile USA. This development threw a spanner in the works for Sprint Nextel's investors who had been anticipating positive results from the recent merger talks between Sprint and the German mobile telecom provider T-Mobile. Should the proposed AT&T/T-Mobile merger meet with the approval of regulatory authorities, the combined company will have in the region of 130 million subscribers, becoming the largest mobile carrier in the United States - a position which is currently held by Verizon.

• CenturyLink & Qwest: Creating a Telecom Giant - 17 March 2011

Regulators in Washington State have given the nod to the acquisition of Qwest Communications by CenturyLink – two of the largest telecommunication companies in the United States. Listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE:CTL) and a member of the S&P500 index, CenturyLink is set to become the third-largest telecommunications company in the country upon the successful conclusion of the buyout – AT&T being the largest, followed by Verizon.

• M&A Activity in Exchanges Raises Concerns - 10 February 2011

As technology drives down the cost of accessing markets around the world and opens up electronic trading to a growing flood of investors, exchanges are looking at joining forces through mergers and acquisitions – such as the proposed acquisition of NYSE Euronext by the Deutsche Borse. Should the proposal be approved, shareholders of Deutsche Borse would be majority owners of the new entity which will be domiciled in the Netherlands. Replaced by high-speed technology, gone are the days of organized chaos that characterized the NYSE as portrayed in the movies, where fortunes were made or lost and market changes were greeted with human emotions of elation or despair. Some call it progress, while others express concern over giving increasing power to technology and being at the mercy of machines with less and less human intervention, opening up the possibility of disaster, as was experienced in the ' flash crash' of May 6, 2010.

• Comcast/NBC Merger Raises Media Dominance Concerns - 3 February 2011

Comcast Corporation, the largest home internet service provider and cable operator in the United States, has completed its merger with American television network NBC, in a deal that has raised concerns regarding the level of control the now $30 billion media giant will have over information delivered to the public. Comcast now holds a 51 percent stake in NBC Universal, with General Electric holding a 49 percent stake, putting Comcast in the position of controlling more telecommunications lines and Internet connections than any other service provider in the country. Included in the assets of Comcast will be the NBC broadcast network, a number of cable channels, more than twenty local NBC and Telemundo stations, online video portals, movie studios and the network that delivers media content to millions of Americans through cable and internet connections. In order to overcome the possible threat to "the development of innovative online video distribution services", as noted by the FCC, a range of stipulations and conditions are included in the deal, many of which are only for a set period of time.

• BP, Goldman Sachs, United & Continental Feature in Week Ahead - 3 may 2010

The upward swing of the market over the past two months, with the Dow enjoying its longest run of positive performance in six years, was brought to an end last week. Heading into the month of May, there varying opinions among stock market investors as to whether the market is entering bear territory, or if this is a minor setback that will be resolved in the coming week.