ICE closes ‘game-changing’ deal for NYSE | www.myajc.com

The storied New York Stock Exchange is now in the hands of a 13-year-old Atlanta company.

IntercontinentalExchange closed Wednesday on its $11 billion purchase of NYSE Euronext, which owns the stock exchange. ICE now will have dual headquarters in Atlanta and New York.

“This is a game-changing transaction,” ICE chairman and CEO Jeff Sprecher said in a statement. “We have significant opportunities ahead.”

ICE will hold a conference call next week to discuss its plans for the company, but reiterated Wednesday that it intends to conduct an initial public offering for Euronext, a group of European exchanges, next year. Euronext will continue to operate under its own name.

ICE will keep the New York Stock Exchange brand and Wall Street building, and will not close its trading floor. In the past, ICE has closed the trading floors of the exchanges it has acquired, and moved to electronic trading.

In an earlier interview, Sprecher said ICE embraces technology but is not forcing users away from trading floors. When it bought and added technology to what was then the New York Board of Trade, trading naturally moved to screens within seven months, he said.

“The velocity of trading, the amount of trading, has increased and the transaction time has decreased,” he said. “And so the market itself voted, not ICE. We ran floor and screens in parallel, and overwhelmingly, people moved to the screen.”

Sprecher has said he wants to lead reform at the stock exchange. He considers trading overly complicated, and the process opaque. As a result, he has said, individual traders are at a disadvantage compared to companies or hedge funds that are constantly in the market.

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