Rejected Twice, Nasdaq & ICE May Take NYSE Bid Hostile (NDAQ, ICE, NYX)

It's all the more possible that NASDAQ OMX NDAQ and the IntercontinentalExchange ICE will go hostile in the bid to acquire NYSE Euronext NYX before Deutsche Boerse secures the deal. The two companies are expected to soon take their $11.1 billion bid directly to NYSE's shareholders through a tender offer, two sources familiar with the situation told Reuters. NYSE favors an existing $10.1 billion offer from Germany's Deutsche Boerse AG, having rejected the NASDAQ/ICE bid twice. According to a BusinessWeek report, "At NYSE Euronext's annual meeting in New York yesterday, Chairman Jan-Michiel Hessels defended the company's deal to be purchased by Frankfurt-based Deutsche Boerse, saying the bid from Nasdaq OMX of New York and Atlanta-based ICE is an “empty vessel.” The rival offer, valued 10 percent higher than Deutsche Boerse's agreement, has been voted down by NYSE Euronext board members including Hessels twice this month." NYSE Euronext stockholders will vote on Deutsche Boerse's proposal on July 7. Shareholders controlling at least half of NYSE Euronext must back the transaction for it to be approved, compared with 75 percent at Deutsche Boerse. Also on Thursday, NYSE CEO Duncan Niederauer said he would close the "perceived value gap" between the deals. NYSE Chairman Hessels called the unsolicited bid from Nasdaq/ICE "illusory" and "fraught with unacceptable execution risk." "We believe their request for a meeting is a tactic principally designed to be disruptive to our combination and therefore we see no basis for which to meet with them," Hessels noted. Shares of NASDAQ OMX Group, Inc. closed lower by $0.24 on Thursday, to $27.24. IntercontinentalExchange, Inc. stock closed lower by $1.59, to $120.20. Shares of NYSE Euronext closed higher by $0.36, to $39.75.