Thin trade

Takeover targets rarely come up with a better deal for shareholders than selling out. Yet Ameritrade, the discount stockbroker, may have managed just such a feat. Its proposed merger with TD Waterhouse, a division of Canada’s Toronto-Dominion Bank, looks better than an unsolicited bid floated by E*Trade – but only by a hair. Consider the arithmetic. Ameritrade will acquire TD in exchange for 32% of the new company’s stock. As a result, Ameritrade’s existing shareholders will nab 68% of the $578m...