NYSE board rejects Nasdaq, endorses Deutsche Boerse bid

Apr 11, 2011, 4:40 GMT

New York - The board of the New York Stock Exchange voted unanimously on Sunday to endorse a merger deal with Deutsche Boerse AG, turning away a competing bid from the Nasdaq exchange.

In February, Deutsche Boerse unveiled a deal to acquire NYSE Euronext for about 9.6 billion dollars in stock. NYSE Euronext chief executive Duncan Niederauer called the agreement a 'merger of equals.'

Last month, Nasdaq OMX swooped in with an 11.3-billion-dollar counter offer, which the NYSE board on Sunday derided as 'highly conditional.'

'Breaking up NYSE Euronext, burdening the pieces with high levels of debt, and destroying its invaluable human capital, would be a strategic mistake in terms of where the global markets are going, and is clearly not in the best interests of our shareholders,' the NYSE Euronext board said in a statement after its decision against the Nasdaq offer.

With the vote by the NYSE board, shareholders may soon get to decide on the deal. Nasdaq may still take the counter offer to NYSE shareholders.

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