纽交所缘何只能下嫁洲际交易所

    但这些计划最终都以失败告终。由于衍生产品市场可能出现垄断，欧洲监管机构果断予以否决。在美国，监管部门对纳斯达克和纽交所的合并也不买账，原因是合二为一后的交易所可能主导美国股票发行市场。

    可行的只有纽交所和洲际交易所的合并。两家交易所的业务没有重叠，洲际交易所既没有美国股票交易平台，在欧洲衍生产品市场上的份额也不大。洲际交易所和纳斯达克联手的原因是它提出的收购方案要能和德意志交易所100亿美元的收购报价相抗衡。

    洲际交易所上周四发布的公告显示，所有监管问题已得到解决，它已经得到了它真正想要的东西，那就是进入欧洲衍生产品市场。接下来，洲际交易所没有浪费一点儿时间，随即发布另一份公告，宣布它设在伦敦的交易所将开始为NYSE Liffe提供结算服务。洲际交易所首席执行官杰夫•斯普雷彻在上周四的电话会议上表示，Liffe尝试自行开展结算完全是个“令人愉快的局面”。此举将消除所有“交易所完整性问题上的不确定性”并能让洲际交易所和纽交所在利率衍生产品市场的注意力“非常迅速地汇聚在一起”。

    但这并非“令人愉快的局面”，这笔交易成行的主要原因也在于此。与纽交所合并后，洲际交易所将成为欧洲衍生产品市场中的主力，因为届时它将既能进行交易结算，也能进行交易处理。特别是在利率掉期和信用违约掉期领域，这两项业务将很快在洲际交易所上马。它在美国和欧洲都不需要股票交易平台。洲际交易所的出价很高，和纽交所上周三收盘价相比有35%的溢价。原因不是该公司想掌管新泽西州的一批服务器和华尔街上华丽的电视演播室，而是洲际交易所认为自己将成为不断增长的衍生产品市场中的主角。

    面对如何处理纽交所其他业务的问题，斯普雷彻言辞闪烁。不过他确实提到洲际交易所正在考虑剥离纽交所的欧洲股票业务。预计这项计划将在双方签署合并协议后很快实施，而通过监管机构审查要占去明年的大部分时间。随后，洲际交易所可能对纽交所的其他业务进行拆分。可能会有很多规模不一的交易所希望得到纽交所的股票交易业务，其中包括伦敦证券交易所（the London Stock Exchange）这样的大型机构，此外还有BATS和DirectEdge这样的轻量级证交所。

    因此，虽然表面上对纽交所的争夺已经结束，但实际上它很可能还会继续下去。

    No one would win this round. European regulators, of course, crushed the Deutsche Borse deal due to the derivatives monopoly. On this side of the Atlantic, US regulators weren't too enthused about the idea of combining the Nasdaq with the NYSE as the combined company would dominate the US equity listing market.

    The one part of the deal that did work was combining the NYSE and ICE. The business lines of the two companies didn't overlap as ICE had neither an equity trading platform in the US nor a big presence in the European derivatives market. The reason ICE teamed up with Nasdaq was because it needed to make a big bid to counter Deutsche Borse's $10 billion bid. The deal allowed ICE to keep the European derivatives business and immediately hive off the NYSE's equity trading and listing business.

    Thursday's announcement solves all the regulatory problems and gives ICE what it truly wants – access to the European derivatives market. The company didn't waste any time, issuing a separate statement in addition to the merger announcement noting that ICE's clearinghouse in London would begin clearing trades for NYSE Liffe. Jeff Sprecher, ICE's chief executive, said on the conference call Thursday that it was "just a happy circumstance" that Liffe is trying to develop its own clearing opportunities. Such a move would remove any "uncertainty around the completion of a potential clearinghouse" and allow the two companies to "very quickly turn [their] attention together" on the interest rate derivatives space.

    "Happy circumstance," it wasn't – it was pretty much why the deal happened. The combination makes ICE a powerhouse in the European derivatives space as it will be able to both clear and facilitate trades, most notably interest rate swaps and credit default swaps, which will begin moving onto the exchange soon. ICE has no use for an equities platform in either the US or Europe. It paid a high price – 35% premium to where the NYSE last traded Wednesday - because it thinks it can become a major player in the growing derivatives space, not because it wants to babysit a bunch of servers in New Jersey and manage a glorified TV studio on Wall Street.

    When asked what he will do with the other parts of the NYSE, Sprecher was vague. He did note that the company was mulling a spinoff of the NYSE's European equities business. That should be expected as soon as the ink is dry on the merger agreement, which should take most of next year to clear the regulatory gauntlet. Similar spin-offs of the rest of the NYSE will likely follow. There are a number of large and small exchanges that could want NYSE's equity trading unit, from big players like the London Stock Exchange to smaller ones like BATS and DirectEdge.

    So while it looks like the fight for control of the floor of the NYSE is over, it is most likely still on.