EU clears ICE, NYSE Euronext stock market tie-up

The European Commission approved Monday the acquisition of NYSE Euronext, which operates the New York stock exchange and several bourses in Europe, by InterContinental Exchange. The deal did "not raise competition concerns as (the two) are not direct competitors in the markets concerned and would continue to face competition from a number of other competitors," the Commission said in a statement.
ICE, which specialises in commodity and financial derivatives for investment, offered $8.2 billion for NYSE Euronext in December last year after an earlier bid failed. In early 2012, the Commission vetoed a planned tie-up between NYSE Euronext and Deutsche Boerse, saying it would have harmed competition, especially in the derivatives markets. The Commission said Monday that this was not the case in the NYSE Euronext-ICE deal, especially in commodities such as canola, rapeseed, cocoa, coffee and sugar, and also in US equity index derivatives.