THE Deutsche Börse’s effort to take over the London Stock Exchange has gone from a bad joke to a dangerous menace. Anyone who cares about the ownership of an institution that stands at the centre of the City of London must stop, think and act. The LSE is in danger of being taken over by a management team that can’t be trusted, doesn’t understand transparency, and rejects accountability.

It’s a grave situation, and if it goes the wrong way London as a financial centre could be badly hurt. Lots of serious players, such as the big fund-manager Fidelity, have already acted. For that they deserve praise. Now others must come forward.

The absurdness that is Werner Seifert, the Deutsche Börse chief executive, revealed his true colours last week. We already knew his views on shareholder democracy: owners of Deutsche Börse’s shares will not be permitted to vote on an LSE takeover. Indeed, Seifert and his board colleagues seem to be pledging to continue the fight against Deutsche Börse’s own shareholders even if 51% of the shares are against the deal. Deutsche Börse people shrug their shoulders and say that’s German corporate governance for you.

Indeed it is. And that is where it should stay. Why would any UK fund manager trust Seifert to run the LSE, the market for buying and selling UK-listed shares? He simply does not share the same ideas as us here about ownership rights.

The final straw was Seifert’s pathetic refusal to take questions from disgruntled shareholders at a results conference call last week. However bad it gets, never refuse questions. In the UK we believe in the ability to question, argue and disagree. To not even allow your shareholders to put their hands up was fantastically stupid.

Yet in many ways we should thank Seifert. After last week’s foolishness it is all but impossible for Deutsche Börse to take control of the LSE. It is surely a question of when, not if, the German exchange is forced to pull its bid. But before that happens, there is the potential for reputations to be shattered. Seifert is toast and will not be welcomed in London again.

But what of his respected board members, such as Lord Levene, the City grandee, and Mehmet Dalman, ex-Commerzbank hot shot? They need to consider their positions carefully.

And then there’s Goldman Sachs. Why is one of the City’s most respected investment banks betting its good name on Seifert? I’d be surprised if senior Goldman people weren’t worrying about the reputational damage.

Persistence pays

ASK Sir Martin Sorrell about his average week and you will typically get a description of several towns and cities in Europe, North and South America, and Asia. And that, in my mind, is the secret of Sorrell’s and WPP’s success. The indefatigable chief executive of the world’s soon-to-be biggest advertising and marketing group simply cares more, and puts in more hard yards than his competitors. It has been that way for WPP’s 20 years of existence and its strong financial results last week showed it is paying off. “WPP isn’t a matter of life or death for me, it’s more important than that,” Sorrell half-joked recently.

An executive recounted to me what it is like to be pitched to by WPP for an advertising account. First, Sorrell himself turns up. It could be some Godforsaken place in the Mid-West of America, but Sorrell will be there. Second, he is extremely knowledgeable about your business and its competitors. He has probably met your boss. Third, he relentlessly pursues you after the pitch has finished: e-mails, phone calls, and even dropping by your office. You can’t help thinking, this man runs WPP, he must have better things to do. But then you think, hey, maybe I’m that important to him. He wants my business so badly, I’ll give it to him.

And even then, Sorrell does not go away. Former Viacom chief executive Mel Karmazin said: “It doesn’t matter what time it is. If he didn’t get back to me in 15 minutes, I’d call to see if he’d been injured.”

Smart Alecs