NASDAQ Buying Philadelphia Stock Exchange? (NDAQ, NYX, ISE)

CNBC was just reporting that The NASDAQ Stock Market, Inc. (NASDAQ:NDAQ) is close to purchasing the Philadelphia Stock Exchange for a sum of $500 million to $600 million.

This might not make sense to some, but this acquisition would give a substantial exposure to options trading.  The deal is said to be closing at some point in the next week.  Before counting your chickens here as a win, there is likely nothing keeping other exchanges Like NYSE (NYSE:NYX) or International Securities Exchange (NYSE:ISE) from making their own attempts to mark a deal for this exchange or others.

NASDAQ shares are up another almost 4% today at $49.60

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Jon C. Ogg
November 6, 2007

Jon Ogg produces the 24/7 Wall St. Special Situation Investing Newsletter; he does not own securities in the companies he covers.