Nasdaq’s Robert Greifeld has put the American company’s substantial stake in the London Stock Exchange up for sale.

The move is thought to signal the end of the aggressive CEO’s ambitions to take over the LSE, while giving him extra leverage in his bid for the Scandinavian exchange group, OMX.

The sale would open the way for a higher offer on OMX, after the Dubai Financial Centre topped Nasdaq’s agreed bid last week.

Speculation is rife that a deal between Nasdaq and Dubai may be in the offing, which would leave the ambitious Gulf State with a major holding in the LSE and Greifeld with a clear run at OMX.

That would be yet another blistering headache for Clara Furse and her team in the City.

Investors in the London Stock Exchange have backed its bid to take over Borsa Italiana by a large majority. Some 78 percent of the shareholder base approved the deal, including Nasdaq, former hostile bidder for the LSE which holds 30 percent of the shares.

Chief Executive, Clara Furse said, “This value-creating deal also accelerates our shared vision to become the world’s capital market”.

The Borsa brings a welcome strength in derivatives and fixed-income trading to an often beleaguered London market that let slip the chance to buy Liffe five years ago. The deal will put the LSE in the Footsie 100 for the first time.

It will now be more difficult for any predator wishing to snap up the LSE in future. Nasdaq’s agreement may signal it now accepts that future bids are out of the question.

The London Stock Exchange (LSE) is in the process of finalizing an agreed £1.1 billion ($2.1bn) all-share takeover of Borsa Italiana, the Milan stock exchange.

The TimesBusiness is reporting : “The board of the Borsa was locked in a second day of meetings, but unofficial indications were that agreement had been reached. The LSE is prepared to offer 4.9 of its shares for every one in the Borsa.”

That does seem to be a whopping price to pay for the seventh largest exchange in Europe, but clearly Clara Furse is getting her retaliation in first to beat off counter offers from New York or Frankfurt.

The merger will create Europe’s biggest exchange read from the value of companies listed there, with around half of the FTSE Eurofirst 100 listing.

The two exchanges will be owned by one company headed by Clara Furse, LSE’s chief executive. Her Italian counterpart, Massimo Capuano will become her deputy.

We also hear that the Borsa will have five seats on the board to London’s seven, giving the Italians far greater presence than the sizes of the two exchanges would suggest.

London is capitalised at £2.7 billion, against just over £1 billion for Borsa Italiana.

A formal confirmation of the agreed offer could come on Monday morning. It would leave the two New York exchanges in a quandary. The New York Stock Exchange is now merged with Euronext, operator of four continental markets, and Liffe, the financial futures market in London. The merged group has expressed an interest in buying the Borsa but has yet to table a formal offer and will now have to decide if it can trump the London terms.

By diluting the Nasdaq holding from 30 percent to 20, the merger will make it more difficult for the Americans to bid again in January.

Milan and London will continue to be operated separately under the terms of the agreement, but the LSE is expected to concentrate on the benefits of becoming a larger player on the world stage

Clara Furse is also expected to emphasise the attractions of MTS, the government bonds trading platform. The Borsa has already moved to take control of the platform this week, and it could boost the LSE’s capabilities in the derivatives market where it is weak.

“Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa, the Italian Economy Minister, pledged support for a Milan-London link last night, describing it as ‘a very positive accord because it creates a very strong international presence’. ”

With shares in the London Stock Exchange hitting the dizzy heights of £13.92 ($27.56) — Nasdaq’s offer was £12.43 — the exchange is now on the reserve list for the Footsie 100.

If it’s promoted to that elite squadron, its stock would be picked up by all the tracker funds leading to further gains in value. It’s an enviable prospect and would probably ensure the hard-pressed exchange some respite from the constant challenges it has faced in recent years.

As if to emphasise the point, the LSE has just upgraded its technology platform. The new system allows trades to be executed in full in just 10 milliseconds and allows companies a much easier experience for trading in shares and other instruments.

Called TradElect, the new system is one in the eye for bankers’ darling, Project Turquoise, which is yet to be launched.

Here’s how the LSE describes TradElect :

TradElect, the Exchange’s brand new trading system is up and running. TradElect brings unprecedented levels of performance, enhanced functionality and new services to our markets whilst maintaining our exemplary record for reliability.

It allows our customers to trade on one of the fastest, most reliable and technologically advanced equity markets in the world.

Its introduction marks the final and most significant phase of the Exchange’s four-year system upgrade project – known as Technology Roadmap (TRM) - and now delivers a range of key functional and technical enhancements including;

* Increase the speed and efficiency of trading
* Provide the framework for the rapid development of new markets and asset classes
* Enhance the market structure to better support order routing, settlement and clearing
* Extend functionality for order handling, quote management and trade reporting.

These are surely the good times for the LSE and its doughty chief executive, Clara Furse, and chairman, Chris Gibson-Smith.