- BGC Partners (NASDAQ:BGCP) went ahead with its $675M bid for rival GFI Group (NYSE:GFIG) after talks between the two companies reached a deadlock.
- "Despite our best efforts to engage with GFI regarding a negotiated transaction, we have been met with only unreasonable demands and delay tactics," says BGC Chief Executive Howard Lutnick.
- Talks hit a roadblock over negotiations relating to a confidentiality agreement that would give BGC access to inside information about GFI's energy-trading platform Trayport and its pricing-and-data business known as Fenics. In return for the information, GFI had sought a pledge from BGC not to recruit its key employees.
- The terms of the bid remain unchanged from BGC's Sept. 9 proposal of an all-cash tender offer of $5.25 per share that topped exchange-operator CME Group's (NASDAQ:CME) $4.55 per share all-stock bid.