US Justice Department approves Deutsche Boerse, NYSE deal

Deutsche Boerse won US antitrust approval to buy NYSE Euronext on Thursday in a $9 billion deal that has hit serious antitrust headwinds in Europe. The Justice Department said on Thursday that the deal, which was announced in February, won approval on condition that a Deutsche Boerse subsidiary, the International Securities Exchange, divest its 31.5 percent interest in Direct Edge. Direct Edge is the fourth-largest US exchange, the department said.
Despite the divestiture, Deutsche Boerse and NYSE must continue to provide some services to Direct Edge, the department said. In Europe, there have been weeks of negotiations during which European Union antitrust staff made clear their reservations about approving a combination of Deutsche Boerse's Eurex and NYSE Euronext's Liffe on concerns that the merged entity would have a monopoly over European listed derivatives trading.