Cybersquatter has Liffe in his sights

AS the chiefs of Europe's biggest stock markets fight to buy London's Liffe financial exchange this weekend, the eventual winner may face an altogether different tussle - with a so-called 'cybersquatter'.

American businessman Syed Hussain registered the internet address euroliffe.com just one day after Liffe - the London International Financial Futures and Options Exchange - confirmed it had received takeover approaches.

Two possible buyers for Liffe are Euronext, an alliance of French, Dutch and Belgian exchanges, and Eurex, a subsidiary of the Deutsche Borse.

Hussain has a long record as a cybersquatter, one of the internet's chancers who register web addresses in the hope of selling them on to companies at a profit.

In recent years, he has been sued by a number of corporations trying to recover their internet identity.

The US Olympic Committee won an arbitration case against Hussain after he registered the address usolympicstore. com ahead of the Atlanta games.

But many cybersquatting cases never become public because corporations prefer to buy the name rather than face a legal battle.