InterContinentalExchange Inc. is hoping that a friendly deal to acquire NYSE Euronext achieves what a hostile bid could not. ICE agreed on December 20 to pay $8.2 billion, two-thirds in cash and the rest in stock, for NYSE Euro-next, which owns the New York Stock Exchange . The target’s shareholders can opt for $33.12 in cash or 0.2581 ICE shares per NYSE Euronext share or a combination of $11.27 per share in cash and 0.1703 of an ICE share, consideration that reflects a 37 percent premium to NYSE Euronext’s closing price on the day before the deal was announced.
The tie-up came almost two years after a flurry of moves that turned out to be in vain. NYSE Euronext agreed to merge with Deutsche Börse AG on February 15, 2011 [Deals & Suits, May 2011]. On April 1, ICE and Nasdaq OMX Group Inc. responded with a hostile bid for NYSE Euronext. But the two interlopers dropped their offer less than two months later when U.S. antitrust regulators threatened to block the deal, and European antitrust regulators rejected the proposed combination of Deutsche Börse and NYSE Euronext last year.
