Dubai Ownership of NASDAQ

It's certainly a trend.

LSE faces fresh bidding war

By Norma Cohen in London

Published: September 20 2007 09:11 | Last updated: September 20 2007 21:29

Nearly 50 per cent of the London Stock Exchange is now in the hands of two rival Gulf states battling to be their region's leader in the global consolidation of exchanges.

Qatar Investment Authority and Borse Dubai now own 48 per cent of the LSE following a complex series of deals in which ownership of Europe's exchanges is being realigned.

Source

German and French companies control drinking water and wastewater services for one in 12 Americans, more than a 10th of the crude oil and natural gas produced in the USA in 2003 was produced by companies at least partially owned by foreign firms, 27 of the 145 U.S. refineries in 2003 were owned by foreign companies, more than half of U.S. debt available for public purchase is held by foreigners ... ... .

Re: Dubai Ownership of NASDAQ

What's so disturbing about it? What's the harm in a Dubai-owned NASDAQ?

Now, where is the American freedom of markets and trade?

When Nyse and Euronext merge nobody says anything...

These are good questions to ask.

In a letter today, Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., urged Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson to conduct the Borse Dubai CFIUS review under the standards imposed by the Foreign Investment and National Security Act of 2007, even though most of the requirements of the new law do not take effect until later this fall.

Schumer chairs the Joint Economic Committee, composed of 10 members each from the Senate and House of Representatives.

"Nasdaq is not just any exchange, but one of the world's largest," Schumer wrote Paulson. "With approximately 3,200 companies, it lists more companies and, on average, trades more shares per day than any other U.S. market."

Schumer's letter posed five specific questions for Paulson:


What national security concerns are raised by allowing a foreign government to own U.S. financial exchanges?

Specifically, with respect to Dubai, are there national security concerns about this particular country's influence or control over a U.S. exchange?

U.S. exchanges are a critical asset to our national economic infrastructure. What implications would foreign government control or influence have on our economic security?

U.S. economic security depends on continued competitiveness in a global financial market. What impact will this transaction have on U.S. financial competitiveness?

If national and economic security concerns can be satisfied, should restrictions be placed on this transaction to limit Dubai's control and influence over U.S. exchanges?
The Department of the Treasury could not be reached for immediate comment.

... yet Mr. Schumer doesn't answer them. He only splits part of them up into further questions, some of which sound rather rhetoric.

That might be due to the fact that Sen Schumer is directing the Treasury Secretary to ask and report back to his committee.

I would hope the US Govt could hold this up until a full investigation is made. The NASDAQ is not some insignificant "market" and the US security could be at risk if the answers to the above questions are not satisfactory.

how is that?

If you have to ask....there really is not enough time to explain this to you.

Just think objectively for a moment the potential impact of foreign ownership of NASDAQ by a "potential" enemy and what this could cause.

Do you think the US govt should ignore this ?

The title of "the largest stock exchange in the world" isn't some kind of fief belonging to NASDAQ. It is the outcome of a very competitive market. Having bought NASDAQ, Dubai can't do anything dubious with NASDAQ that the previous owners couldn't. It has to offer the most trustworthy, most secure, and technically smoothest trading platform there is. If it doesn't, companies can easily take their stock-trading business elsewhere, dooming Dubai's new franchize to irrelevance.


Or in other words, you only have rhetoric. You don't have an argument.


Yes.

There's no possible interest in keeping certain sectors of our economy owned and managed by Americans?

Cycloptichorn

If Dubai is good enough to be the new Halliburton home and own our ports, surely there isn't a problem with them owning our major stock exchange. What could possibly wrong with any of this?

Well, it might certainly be that Sweden is interested in that - NASDAQ is the 100% owner of their stock exchange.

And I think they would have a good point.

Cycloptichorn

Yes, many Sweds objected that it was bought by an American company .... but global business, free trade and market, you know.

There's no such thing as either 'free trade' or 'free markets.' They are buzzwords used by Capitalists to cover up the ill effects of their actions.

Cycloptichorn

Okay. So NASDAQ bought the OMX otherwise.

Well, yes, they bought the thing; but let's not throw useless buzzwords into it in order to offer some sort of justification.

Cycloptichorn

No. Even the US president would be much more competent, not to mention much cheaper, if you had just outsourced his job to India.