Morning Edition 13.09.00

silicon.com's daily two-minute guide to the best ebusiness and IT stories from this morning's UK national newspapers.

The breakdown of high-tech merger plans between the London and Frankfurt stock exchanges has led to recriminations, according to the Financial Times. Deutsche Bourse is considering a "hostile" takeover offer for the London Stock Exchange, the paper says. Yesterday, the LSE withdrew from the iX merger plan to concentrate on fending off another unwanted suitor, Sweden's OM Group. Don Cruickshank, LSE chairman, left no one in doubt of his views on the latest developments. "Deutsche Bourse is not a white knight," he declared... A takeover of a different kind could be about to damage BT's continental ambitions. Wind, a joint venture between electricity utility and France Telecom, has emerged as favourite to acquire Vodafone's Italian fixed-line business, Infostrada. According to the Telegraph, Vodafone and Wind are in "exclusive talks" leaving BT still looking for a foothold in the Italian market. The Independent says any deal is likely to net Vodafone £8bn but is subject to approval from Mannesmann's supervisory board. Vodafone inherited Infostrada when it took over Mannesmann earlier this year... From the same paper, news that Henry Beker has stepped down as non-executive chairman of Baltimore Technologies. The Independent says the decision follows ongoing boardroom tensions between Beker and Baltimore's chief executive, Fran Rooney. Beker, co-founder of the Dublin-based security firm, will walk away with 4.4 million shares, worth £34m... Finally, our daily 'Bill Gates Watch' takes us to Sydney, home of the Olympics and those opportunist anti-capitalist protesters. As 500 protestors continued to blockade the Crown Casino - venue of the World Economic Forum - Gates defended the roll of technology in global trade, writes the Guardian. "If we can bring exciting new applications that make knowledge workers more effective, the continued benefit we have - the PC, the software revolution, the internet - [economic miracles] will continue to grow very strongly." Morning Edition will be back tomorrow morning.