“Our announced transaction with ICE presents the opportunity to create a worldwide leader in trading markets and risk management, focused on the high-growth derivatives markets with world-class clearing capabilities supporting it, alongside the world’s premiere listing venue,’’ said NYSE Euronext chief executive Duncan Niederauer this week.
Yet it’s not the operator of the New York Stock Exchange – the symbol of world capitalism – that is leading this $8.2 billion transaction with fresh-faced, Atlanta-based Intercontinental Exchange, an operator of derivatives marketplaces and provider of clearing services.
How is it that an exchange operator less than two decades old acquiring one more than two centuries old – and roughly three times its size?
The year-end numbers from NYSE Euronext and Intercontinental Exchange tell the story. Click here to start.
