To many, this has the seeds of disaster. The Nasdaq's decision to go hostile with a $5.3 billion bid for the London Stock Exchange is playing with fire. Sure, it may prevail--it already owns 30 percent of the shares and needs to win over just 20 percent. That means it will likely not have to worry about bidding up to win over hedge funds and others that bought-in hoping for a higher price. But the issue is how much ill will the Nasdaq will engender on the way. There are many constituencies who are worried about American ownership of major exchanges. The fear of Sarbanes-Oxley is only one reason. You can sense the cultural unease. The last thing the Nasdaq wants is for this to turn into a political circus. It has that potential.

For more:
- here's an article from MarketWatch