Just about a year after the failed attemped by the Deutsche Bourse to acquire the NY Stock Exchange, we get a friendly reminder that stock trading is a dying business, and venues that engage in it must consolidate or die. Sure enough, moments ago the Intercontinental Exchange, or ICE, announced it would acquire the NYSE for $33.12 or roughly $8.2 billion in stock and cash.
- ICE TO BUY NYSE EURONEXT FOR $33.12-SHR IN STOCK, CASH
- ICE PACT IS FOR ABOUT 67% SHRS, 33% CASH
- INTERCONTINENTALEXCHANGE TO ACQUIRE NYSE FOR ABOUT $8.2 BLN
- ICE TO FUND CASH IN DEAL WITH CASH ON HAND, EXISTING CREDIT
- NYSE EURONEXT HOLDERS TO OWN ABOUT 36% OF ICE SHRS POST DEAL
- ICE SAYS NIEDERAUER TO BE PRESIDENT COMBINED CO, CEO NYSE GROUP
It is unclear if the combined exchange will be called N-ICE.
That this follows days after yet another mega consolidation, this time one creating a monopolist in the HFT space with the GETCO acquisition of Knight, is also not surprising. Expect more and more forced, unforced, voluntary and otherwise mergers, as trading volume collapse to levels not seen since the mid-1990s. Sadly, there is just not enough money for everyone who continued to expect the 2000s trading volume trendline to continue in perpetuity.