World exchanges are on fire

CMEH + CBOT or ICE + CBOT? CMEH sweetened for the second time its initial October bid for CBOT by adding 485 dividend to 10.1 bil acquisition proposal and pledging 333 mil more th help members of the Borad of Trade csah in on trading rights of disputed value they own at a seperate options exchange. The annoucement came on the heelsof a Justice Dep deicsion Monday to allow the Merc-CBOT deal to proceed without any changes. ICE has also sweetened th terms of its deal twice. It is on the border line....Merc officials believe that ICE stock reflects a takeover premium that assumes it will lose the CBOT deal but be snapped up by someone else. Nasdaq might get LSE Market indicated that NYSE Euronext tried to distance itself from LSE, leaving LSE one less way to avoid LT suitor NADAQ. NYSE Euronext think derivatives, instead of equity, firepower has higher priority. Nadaq has already batted off twice. Nasdaq has around 30% stake in the LSE, but under British takeover rules Nasdaq can not bid again until early next year. People familiar with the matter have said the among Nasdaq's reasons for buying Nordic exchagne operator OMX AB was that it would ease any move on the LSE, given they can talk of European synergies, and OMX can act as a go-between.