Nasdaq Stock Market has weighed selling a piece of itself to an overseas investor to help it seal a deal to buy Nordic exchange operator OMX, the Wall Street Journal reported on its website on Tuesday, citing people familiar with the matter.
It is unclear if Nasdaq will ultimately resort to this approach, the report said. Nasdaq faces competition for OMX from state-owned Borse Dubai.
If the Swedish government rules that Dubai can move ahead with its merger proposal, Nasdaq may seek to win OMX by possibly selling a stake in itself to Dubai in exchange for Dubai dropping or modifying its OMX bid, the report said.
Sweden’s decision, expected in coming days, could also impact on Nasdaq’s efforts to sell its 31% stake in the London Stock Exchange (LSE).
If both Dubai and the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), a front-runner to purchase that LSE stake, were pushing to buy the LSE stake, Nasdaq could decide to play the two countries off against each other by seeing if one would make an investment in Nasdaq, the report said, citing one person familiar with the matter.
Nasdaq was not immediately available for comment.
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