June 18, 2000

The New York Times


PRIVATE SECTOR
Innovators Looking to London 


By DAVID BARBOZA 

Chicago's financial exchanges may have spread the notion of hedging by buying futures on stocks,
bonds and currency, but two men who helped pave the way for all this in the 1980's are now turning
to London to promote further innovations. They are Richard L. Sandor, the former Berkeley
economics professor who helped introduce financial futures at the Chicago Board of Trade, and
Leslie Rosenthal, the exchange's former chairman. They said they were behind the recent
announcement that Battery Ventures, a venture capital fund, and the Blackstone Group would
invest $91 million for nearly 40 percent stake in the London International Financial Futures
Exchange, or Liffe. 


Liffe, which like the Chicago exchange was owned by its participating firms, has become a
profit-making corporation. Mr. Sandor, a Liffe board member, and Mr. Rosenthal said they advised
Battery and Blackstone to turn to London only after trying unsuccessfully to invest in the Chicago
Board of Trade. That exchange now plans to become a profit-making corporation itself.