Path free for world's biggest stock exchange

In the battle to take over the New York stock exchange NYSE Euronext, the US exchange company Nasdaq withdrew its offer on Monday. Now nothing stands in the way of a merger with Germany's Deutsche Börse, writes the left-liberal daily Süddeutsche Zeitung: "Wall Street is at stake here, the symbol of American capitalism. Naturally this has generated resistance, which however so far has barely been politically motivated. ... Now Nasdaq has suddenly withdrawn its counteroffer, saying that the competition authorities had raised objections. This may be true, but above all Nasdaq lacked both a convincing business model and the capital to force out Deutsche Börse. Now the path is clear for Frankfurt. There is no one left to contest the German offer and even the loudest critics are just picking at minor details without calling the basic concept of the deal into question. This episode of the story raises some hope that this transatlantic fusion could at least get to a good start. That's more than can usually be expected of such deals."

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