German Deutsche Boerse AG Takes Over The NYSE

How many more indicators does the average American need to realize that we are in freefall with the rocks dead ahead?

The globalist march continues as banks buy each other up and merge stock trading indexes. I read about this story last week, and today, a german bank has taken controlling interest of the symbol of America’s economic power.

What does that say about the collapse of America?

German Bank Nears Purchase of NYSE

Wednesday, 09 Feb 2011 11:38 AM

Deutsche Boerse AG is in advanced talks to buy NYSE Euronext in an all-stock transaction that would create the world’s biggest exchange operator, accelerating a day of takeovers that began with London Stock Exchange Group Plc’s acquisition of Canada’s TMX Group Inc.

NYSE and Deutsche Boerse said they will produce 300 million euros ($410 million) in cost savings, according to a statement. Duncan Niederauer, New York-based NYSE Euronext’s chief executive officer, will hold the same job at the combined company. Frankfurt-based Reto Francioni, CEO of Deutsche Boerse, will be chairman. Deutsche Boerse will own about 59 percent to 60 percent of the joined corporation.

The combination, following a decade-long wave of mergers among exchange companies, would unite equity and derivatives platforms from the U.S. and Germany to France, the Netherlands and Portugal. Since 2000, there has been at least $95.8 billion in completed acquisitions at exchanges worldwide, including NYSE Group’s purchase of Euronext NV and Nasdaq Stock Market Inc.’s takeover of OMX AB, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Donald Trump on German Index Buying Majority Stake in NYSE

It will be a day that will go down in infamy. The biggest symbol of America’s economic might—the preeminent institution of Anglo-Saxon financial domination—is about to be sold.

And to a German rival.

What is happening to America? Has it really lost so much economic strength that a company from a nation once bombed to rubble is now purchasing the institution that helped raise the funds to make America’s war effort possible? It should be the New York Stock Exchange doing the taking over, not being taken over.

When the bell chimes for the last time at American-owned 11 Wall Street, it will be an ominous, portent-filled day for the country. But probably not for the reason you think.

No other institution represents America like the New York Stock Exchange. It is the home of capitalism. And through the years, by and large, it has served America well. No other country in the world has generated so much wealth so quickly. Sure the super-rich have a disproportionate share of it, but knock capitalism as you will, it has also generated the largest middle class in history.

Throughout most of its 219 years, the New York Stock Exchange has also powered the growth of exceptional American corporations, connecting them with deep pools of financing to power rapid expansion—and just as importantly, punishing those companies that refused or were unable to adapt and innovate. For better or worse, it is the tool that has helped keep American companies sharp, competitive and accountable.

And now, the nyse is dying a very capitalistic death.

American media is selling the story as a merger of equals. The new combined company will be the world’s largest exchange group by revenues—and be valued at over $25 billion. The chief executive officer will come from the nyse group, while the chairman will come from Deutsche Börse.

But that is where the equality ends.

In Germany it’s being reported as a takeover through and through. The “merger of equals” stuff is window dressing to keep Americans happy. Sixty percent of the new merged company will be composed of shareholders of Deutsche Börse—giving them the voting power. The current plans may call for New York to remain a head office to supplement Deutsche Börse’s regional hubs in Frankfurt and Paris. But the reality is that both Paris and New York will become little more than token headquarters for the new company.

“There is going to be no ‘triangle concept’ here,” one source told the Financial Times.

The only triangle concept will be that of a pyramid—with Frankfurt on top. “New York is going to be important, but it’s not the financial center,” says Michael La Branche, a member of a family-run firm that has traded on the floor of the nyse for 87 years.

But even before the merger, about half of the nyse group’s shareholders were already European. In 2006, nyse merged with Euronext, consolidating New York with exchanges in Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam and Lisbon, along with a futures exchange in London. Now if the Deutsche Börse deal goes through, U.S. shareholders may own even less. Plus more than half of the board of directors will come from Deutsche Börse.

The baton of economic leadership is being passed again: From London to New York in 1919; and now from New York to Frankfurt in 2011.

According to some experts, U.S. regulators most likely won’t be able to block the nyse sellout either. Just a few years ago they approved the nyse merger with Euronext. Plus, as the Financial Times brings out, there is “‘good support’ at the highest political level in Germany” for the deal. So U.S. regulators would risk offending an important trade partner and ally. Also, the German government has said that since the two companies are private, the German government will only have a “limited” role in the new entity.

But as our 2006 article “Will the U.S. Lose the NYSE?” asked, “What if relations between America and Europe were to become strained? Is it unrealistic to be worried that foreign interests, in a position to sabotage America’s largest stock exchange, would be tempted to do so?”

Even beyond just sabotaging markets, think of all the data on U.S. companies that foreign interests would be able to mine. Already the nyse sells high-speed access to its computers to hedge funds so they can trade a fraction of a second ahead of regular customers, according to the Daily Finance.

Yet here is perhaps the most ominous part about the deal.

The Germans probably don’t even want the New York Stock Exchange!

For all the patriotic flag-waving that has ensued over the loss of the nyse, the truth is that it has been in dramatic decline for decades. Scandals have shattered its reputation, and its profitability is shrinking. The last few years were especially devastating. After the Wall Street meltdown in 2008, even Americans disparage it. In 2005, it handled 80 percent of all trading in stocks it listed; now it handles less than a quarter. As a public company, its stock has plummeted 64 percent since it was listed.

Its business model is broken too. With the march of technology, there is nothing New York does that cannot be done elsewhere for less: less cost, less regulation, and less taxation.

The sad, simple truth is that New York is no longer the coveted economic crown jewel it once was. It is more like tarnished costume jewelry—pretty to wear, but not worth much.

German companies don’t even bother listing in New York anymore. Deutsche Telekom was the latest to pull out on June 18. On June 4 Daimler called it quits. Of the 11 firms on Germany’s dax index (its biggest blue-chip companies) once listed in New York, only four still think it is worth the effort.

For Deutsche Börse, the real prize is in what nyse Euronext owns—with the emphasis on Euronext.

In 2006, the nyse and Deutsche Börse fought over control of Euronext, which owned the Paris, Amsterdam, Lisbon and Brussels stock exchanges as well as a derivatives exchange in London. As we quoted in 2006, at that time Deutsche Börse officials touted the potential Euronext tie-up as the creation of a “truly pan-European exchange organization” and “significant step forward in the integration of European financial markets” (Agence France-Presse, May 22, 2006; emphasis mine).

New York won the battle when it thwarted Deutsche Börse and merged with Euronext. Five years later, Deutsche Börse looks like it is about to win the war. Deutsche Börse is about get Euronext after all—and the nyse, for whatever that is worth.

And from Germany’s perspective, it couldn’t have come at a better time. With much of the periphery of Europe in economic crisis, Germany is pushing for greater economic union—on its terms. In return for bailout money, Germany is forcing indebted countries to turn over national sovereignty. Gaining ownership over the largest stock exchanges in Europe will just add additional firepower to Germany’s already impressive financial weaponry. In the years ahead, the European Union is set to become a much more German-looking institution.

If this merger goes through, the stock exchanges in Amsterdam, Paris, Lisbon, Brussels, Frankfurt and nine other European countries will all fall under control of Germany’s Deutsche Börse. And that is not all.

Make sure to go over and read the entire article at the title link.