History
The London Stock Exchange was founded in Sweeting's Alley in London in 1801. It moved to Capel Court the following year.
In 1972 the Exchange moved to a new purpose-built building and trading floor in Threadneedle Street. Deregulation, sometimes known as "big bang", came in 1986 and external ownership of member firms was allowed for the first time. In 1995 the Alternative Investment Market was launched and in 2004 the Exchange moved again, this time to Paternoster Square.
Nasdaq built up a stake of over 30% in the Exchange in 2007 in a failed attempt to acquire it. It has since sold its investment.
In 2007 the Exchange acquired the Milan-based Borsa Italiana for 1.6bn euro (£1.1bn; $2bn) to form the London Stock Exchange Group plc. The combination was intended to diversify the LSE's product offering and customer base. The all-share deal diluted the stakes of existing LSE shareholders, with Borsa Italiana shareholders receiving new shares representing 28 per cent of the enlarged register.
On 16 September 2009, the London Stock Exchange Group agreed to acquire Millennium Information Technologies, Ltd., a Sri Lankan based software company specialising in trading systems, for US$30m (£18m). The acquisition was completed on 19 October 2009.
On 9 February 2011 TMX Group, operator of the Toronto Stock Exchange agreed to join forces with the London Stock Exchange Group in a deal described by TMX head Tom Kloet as a 'merger of equals' (though 8/15 board members of the combined entity will be appointed by LSE, 7/15 by TMX). The deal, subject to government approval would create the world's largest exchange operator for mining stocks. In the UK the LSE Group first announced it as a takeover, however in Canada the deal was reported as a merger. The provisional name for the combined group would be LTMX Group plc. On 13 June, 2011, a rival, and hostile bid from the Maple Group of Canadian interests, was unveiled for the TMX Group. This was a cash and stock bid of $3.7 billion CAD, launched in the hope of blocking the LSE Group's takeover of TMX. The group was composed of the leading banks and financial institutions of Canada. The London Stock Exchange however announced it was terminating the merger with TMX on 29 June 2011 citing that "LSEG and TMX Group believe that the merger is highly unlikely to achieve the required two-thirds majority approval at the TMX Group shareholder meeting".
In July 2012, the LSE bought a 5% stake in Delhi Stock Exchange.
Read more about this topic: London Stock Exchange Group
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“English history is all about men liking their fathers, and American history is all about men hating their fathers and trying to burn down everything they ever did.”
—Malcolm Bradbury (b. 1932)
“It’s not the sentiments of men which make history but their actions.”
—Norman Mailer (b. 1923)
“To care for the quarrels of the past, to identify oneself passionately with a cause that became, politically speaking, a losing cause with the birth of the modern world, is to experience a kind of straining against reality, a rebellious nonconformity that, again, is rare in America, where children are instructed in the virtues of the system they live under, as though history had achieved a happy ending in American civics.”
—Mary McCarthy (1912–1989)