(December 14) – “An increasingly frustrated Nasdaq Stock Market is giving itself another month to talk with the London Stock Exchange about getting together before turning its attention to possible deals with other exchanges in Europe,” writes Silvia Ascarelli in today’s Wall Street Journal.

“But the internal deadline says as much about Nasdaq’s own weakness in creating the third leg of its promised global market as it does in applying pressure to the LSE to sell itself to a rival market.”

“The U.S. market operator has made no secret of its longstanding interest in the LSE, which has become the focal target of attempts to consolidate Europe’s plethora of national stock exchanges. But it has made little progress in its year-long courtship, despite the general interest in a Nasdaq link by a vocal group of LSE shareholders. A linkup with the LSE, Europe’s largest bourse, is likely to attract other exchanges and create the dominant pan-European market.”

“Although no offer is currently on the table, industry sources said Nasdaq has repeatedly floated the idea of jointly creating a European market that it would dominate. Earlier proposals have called for Nasdaq to own the lion’s share of any new entity.”

“LSE officials declined to comment on Nasdaq’s timetable, which was first reported in the London-based Guardian newspaper. ‘We’re really not in a position to say anything about it,’ a spokeswoman said.”

“Nasdaq is just the latest of the LSE’s many suitors. The London exchange had agreed to a merger with Deutsche Boerse AG in May to create a pan-European market called iX, but that deal fell apart in September. OM Gruppen AB, which owns the Stockholm Stock Exchange, failed in a hostile bid for the LSE this autumn. And Euronext, the merger of the French, Dutch and Belgian bourses, has been given the cold shoulder in its repeated attempts to woo London.”

“People familiar with Nasdaq’s thinking said it isn’t holding the LSE to a firm deadline, given productive discussions on a host of issues. But even an informal deadline reflects the U.S. market’s desire to progress on its European strategy, which was launched with much fanfare in November 1999. It failed to find backers for its initial plan to create a new exchange that would focus on European companies looking to go public, and its link with iX fell apart alongside iX’s demise. It has since said it will form a holding company with three equal units representing its U.S., Japanese and European ventures. Nasdaq Japan was launched earlier this year.”