Deutsche Boerse, NYSE Deal Approved By Justice Department

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Deutsche Boerse won U.S. 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 U.S. 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.

Both Boerse and NYSE Euronext have said they would not pursue the merger if they were asked to divest either Eurex or Liffe. A formal decision by the European Commission is not expected until January or early February.

(Reporting By Diane Bartz; Editing by Gerald E. McCormick)

Copyright 2011 Thomson Reuters. Click for Restrictions.

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Comments

[Ed Baker]

05:47 PM on 12/22/2011

This shows you that our DOJ is for sale, bought and paid for. :)

They sued over the AT&T - TMobile merger - there is so much more competition in the cell market than there is in securities exchanges. Further, new entrants to the cell phone game come along every 15 minutes - there is more than adequate consumer choice in that space.

Stock exchanges - hmm how many of those are available in the entire world? Very few - yet they approve this deal.

Our DOJ is completely crooked, mobbed up and bought.

[ema123]

07:42 PM on 12/22/2011

Not like we had a lot of competition to begin with. the NYSE, & NASDAQ already dominate

[Ed Baker]

11:04 AM on 12/23/2011

Exactly - now we have even less. This shows what our regulators really are - bought and paid for.