NYSE Euronext directors rejected as too risky and lacking value a sweetened take-over offer from Nasdaq OMX Group and IntercontinentalExchange, the second time in 11 days the board unanimously backed a lower bid from Germany's Deutsche Boerse AG.
This week's revised bid "is substantially the same as what was previously rejected," NYSE Euronext Chairman Jan-Michiel Hessels said in a statement - a decision that was expected and that swats the ball back into Nasdaq and ICE's court.
In very similar language to the board's original rejection on April 10, Hessels said the new Nasdaq/ICE plan "does not provide compelling value, has unacceptable execution risk and is therefore not in the best interests of NYSE Euronext shareholders." The board reaffirmed its support for a friendly $10.1 billion take-over offer from Deutsche Boerse. Though it is 11 percent lower than the unsolicited $11.2 billion offer from Nasdaq and ICE, NYSE Euronext argues it fits with the company's strategy to grow internationally with more diverse revenues.
Nasdaq and ICE bid for the New York Stock Exchange parent company on April 1. On Tuesday, they stepped up the bid with a promise to pay NYSE Euronext $350 million if regulators blocked a merger - a pledge meant to ease the board's antitrust worries and draw them to the negotiating table.
The pair - who were left out of a wave of global merger plans among exchanges earlier this year - said they secured committed financing for the deal from banks, and said antitrust regulators would start a review soon. ICE declined to comment. A Nasdaq spokesman was not immediately available.
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