Nasdaq weighs competing NYSE bid: source (Reuters)

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Nasdaq OMX Group Inc (NDAQ.O), left out of a global merger frenzy among exchanges, is exploring options that include teaming up with a partner on a rival bid for NYSE Euronext (NYX.PA) (NYX.N), a person familiar with the situation said on Tuesday.
The alternatives include the possibility of tying up with IntercontinentalExchange Inc (ICE.N) or CME Group Inc (CME.O) to wrest NYSE Euronext out of its deal with Deutsche Boerse (DB1Gn.DE), the person said.
Nasdaq may also consider selling itself or buying another competitor if it is unable to compete with Deutsche Boerse on the NYSE deal, the Wall Street Journal said.
A Nasdaq spokesman was not immediately available to comment. The person familiar with the situation asked to remain anonymous because the talks are private.
Nasdaq has found itself to be the odd-man out in a series of exchange-operator deals in recent months.
Pressure is mounting on global bourses to seek partnerships to counter the threat from bigger rivals and alternative trading platforms, and to cut costs.
In recent weeks, Deutsche Boerse agreed to buy NYSE, the London Stock Exchange Group Plc (LSE.L) announced a deal to take over Canadian stock market operator TMX Group Inc (X.TO), and BATS Global Markets said it will buy peer Chi-X Europe.
Last October, Singapore Exchange agreed to buy Australia's ASX.
It is not clear where Nasdaq's efforts will lead, the person familiar said.
Indeed, officials at both ICE and CME have been cautious about potential deals.
Earlier this month ICE Chief Financial Officer Scott Hill said his exchange, which trades energy futures as well as over-the-counter swaps, sees "a lot of opportunity in the changes that are going on."
But he said ICE is "proceeding cautiously on the M&A side, because what we don't want to do is we don't want to acquire to build scale."
Officials at CME, which owns the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, have said they are not planning any large acquisitions and have promised to return excess cash to investors in the form of dividends or share buybacks.
The New York Times' Dealbook last week said Nasdaq and IntercontinentalExchange were in talks to team up on a possible bid for NYSE Euronext.
(Additional reporting by Michael Erman; Editing by Gary Hill and Muralikumar Anantharaman)
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AP source: Feds drop criminal probe against Mozilo (AP)

LOS ANGELES – Federal prosecutors have ended a criminal investigation of Countrywide Financial Corp. co-founder Angelo Mozilo, a person close to the investigation said Friday.

The federal official told The Associated Press that the probe launched in 2008 into the actions of the former chief executive of the housing giant during the mortgage meltdown has been closed with no indictments. The person spoke on the condition of anonymity because the investigation was never publicly announced, and the Department of Justice as a policy does not announce the closing of investigations.

In October, Mozilo agreed to a $67.5 million settlement to avoid civil trial on fraud and insider trading charges brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission, but prosecutors pursuing the criminal case against him found that his actions did not amount to crimes.

The SEC's charges alleged that the 72-year-old Mozilo and two other former Countrywide executives who also settled profited from doling out risky mortgages while misleading investors about the dangers.

The three men admitted no wrongdoing under the settlement, and it allowed them to avoid the risk of a verdict that could have been used by the prosecutors who would eventually drop the investigation.

Mozilo attorney David Siegel said he could not speak directly to the federal criminal investigation or the SEC charges, but maintained that Mozilo had done no wrong in the cases the former chief executive still faces.

"We continue to litigate various matters in which Mr. Mozilo has maintained his innocence and denied any wrongdoing, and we continue to believe that the facts bear that out," Siegel said.

That litigation includes several civil lawsuits, some filed by investors in Countrywide's mortgage-backed securities.

The shelving of the investigation was first reported by the Los Angeles Times.

The son of a Bronx butcher, Mozilo co-founded Countrywide 41 years ago and watched it grow into the nation's largest home loan originator, writing one in six of the nation's mortgages totaling more than $490 billion by 2006.

But the Calabasas, Calif.-based company spiraled into disaster as investors suddenly realized many homeowners wouldn't be able to repay mortgages that required no proof of income or down payment, and offered adjustable rates that quickly made monthly payments unaffordable.

Bank of America Corp. bought Countrywide and inherited its scores of toxic mortgages in July 2008.

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