CME Group said to be interested in NYSE

By Gregory Karp
Posted Feb. 14 at 3:50 p.m.

Chicago-based CME Group is considering horning in on merger talks between the New York Stock Exchange owner and a stock exchange in Germany, according to reports.

CME, which employs about 2,000 in Chicago, is considering a strategic response to the impending takeover of the Big Board by Deutsche Boerse AG.

Possible responses by CME include making a hostile bid for the NYSE, according to FOX Business. CME may team with Nasdaq OMX Group to buy the NYSE parent, NYSE Euronext, according to a report on the Web site flyonthewall.com.

CME Group declined to comment Monday. “We don’t comment on rumors or speculation,” spokesman Michael Shore said. NYSE spokesman Robert Rendine also declined to comment.

Jon Najarian, a former options trader and co-founder of OptionMonster.com, said it makes sense that CME Group would be considering its strategic next moves, given the merger-mania among worldwide financial exchanges.

However, he said it didn’t seem to make sense for CME to tie up with Nasdaq and to go after the NYSE, as one of the rumors suggests. In that scenario, CME would have a stock exchange in the Nasdaq, it would face regulatory scrutiny if it tried to own both it  and NYSE, and it might have to engage in a bidding war for NYSE.

It makes sense for CME to merge with the Nasdaq or the NYSE, but not both, Najarian said.

Rampant talk of mergers among financial exchanges began last week when NYSE Euronext and Deutsche Boerse AG confirmed merger talks. Also last week, the London Stock Exchange Group announced a deal to buy TMX Group, parent of the Toronto Stock Exchange.

Recent merger talk involved another Chicago-based financial exchange, the Chicago Board Options Exchange, the first and oldest options market. A Deutsche Bourse-NYSE Euronext merger would form an exchange that instantly becomes a major player in the U.S. options market dominated by the CBOE and Nasdaq. That could leave CBOE looking for a partner, analysts have said.

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One comment:

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