Jean-François Théodore, head of Paris- Bourse and chief executive designate of Euronext, could be forgiven if he felt a little bruised. Just weeks after he proudly announced the merger of the stock exchanges in Paris, Amsterdam and Brussels to create Euronext, his old rivals in London and Frankfurt trumped him with the announcement of iX.

To add insult to injury, Euronext has yet to receive a formal response from the London Stock Exchange to its own proposal of a 50/50 merger. 'We would have hoped that our proposal would have received more consideration, and the shareholders of the London Stock Exchange would have a fair chance to see our proposal as well as the iX proposal,' says Théodore.