The bid for the London Stock Exchange (LSE) from OM Gruppen, the Swedish company that owns the Stockholm exchange, always had an heroic air. But it has long been clear that it would fail. And sure enough, when the votes were counted on November loth, only 6.7% of the LSE'S shareholders had accepted OM'S offer, even though, at almost £1 billion ($1.3 billion), it was above the LSE'S market capitalisation of £760m. Moreover, by voting to keep the 4.9% limit that any one shareholder can own, the LSE'S owners signalled that they do not want to be taken over. So what do they want?
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