Feb

15

NYSE Takeover, from Peter Earle

February 15, 2011 |

There's probably no better comment on the state of "capitalism" in this country than that the pivotal issue and the sturm-und-drang slowly mounting around the NYSE being taken over by Deutsche Bourse seems to center upon a "bastion of American capitalism falling into foreign hands" (Aside: A business that essentially operates as a monopoly is a bastion of American capitalism? On second thought, perhaps.) and not, as it should be, what price is being paid vs. the current share price, and if/how shareholders stand to benefit in terms of economies of scale, marketing benefits, etc.

T.K Marks writes:

Regarding the foreign acquistion of the New York Stock Exchange, should there be any dissenters on the Board of such they should insist on writing into the contractual terms that any deal include an agreement in principle that the aquiring party should dig even deeper into their pockets and buy another New York namesake of note, the Mets.

That should be enough of a poison pill.

Should the terms of a such an arrangement not seem at first blush to be entirely above board, the irony lost upon them would be understable to those who have never toiled on an exchange floor.

To those who have worked on the floor and still don't get the above, a closer reading of Dante's Inferno may be in order.

Most specifically, the Fourth, Eight, and Ninth circles.

Those boys out there in Chicago are already saddled with the Cubs. They've suffered enough. Given the circumstances, throwing the Mets in as a rider to any Big Board deal would be cruel and unusual gamesmanship.

A compromise should be in order: Should the Germans in fact be serious about buying the NYSE, as a goodwill gesture they should agree to take Mike D'Antonio off New York's hands as well.

The Germans in turn could unload him to the Dallas Mavericks and get Dirk Nowitzki back.

Sounds like a complicated international negotiation, but then again only a coach with as little regard for fundamentals as Mike D'Antonio could somehow get The Hague involved.

 


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1 Comment so far

  1. Jeff Watson on February 15, 2011 2:53 pm

    I thoroughly enjoyed Mr. Marks description of a trading floor comparing it to the different levels of the hell as described in Dante’s inferno. However, I would respectfully disaree, no so much as that the floor isn’t hell or there are any inaccuracies on Mr. Marks part, but the type of hell the floor can be. I always was more of a believer that the trading floor was more of a kind of hell as eloquently described by Milton in his “Paradise Lost.”. Milton’s hell was full of flames, yet eternally dark. Milton’s devil was a fallen angel, still had wings, and some scaly beauty left, not like the puss riddled, horribly ugly gnome as described at the center of Dante Aligheri’s hell. Milton said, “”We can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven……” which sounds like a trading floor for at least 50% of the inhabitants at any given time. He also said, “Better to reign in hell than serve in heaven,” which sounds kind of like about 30% of my career on the floor. Dante’s hell was that stuck inbetween place, one minute quiet, the next minute getting flayed alive. Milton’s hell was kind of like that feeling you get when the ten second bell goes off, you’re stuck with a half million bushels of wheat six and a half cents against you, trying to unload, and everyone around you is offering a quarter, a half, three quarters of a cent lower, no bids in sight……until, until that fallen angel appears and miraculously takes your wheat, still at a horrible loss, but gets you out alive to repeat the process another day on and on, ad infuinitum. Almost like a perpetual auto de fey However, having discussed Milton and Dante, it would be far too obtuse for me to bring Faust and those kinds of bids and offers into the equation so I will save that for another time. However, for those of a scientific bent, I will leave you with this excellent discussion of Dante’s Hell, Milton’s Hell, and the Miltonian distance between heaven and hell. http://tinyurl.com/4cf9o4k

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