Friday, January 18, 2008

NYSE to buy AMEX

The New York Stock Exchange agreed to buy the American Stock Exchange, ending a once intense rivalry that began in colonial times when brokers traded in outdoor markets. The AMEX, unable to compete like it once did, began to focus on trading options and other financial products. It now trades generally smaller companies that are often too illiquid to meet the standards of bigger rivals. NYSE said it would pay AMEX's seatholders $260 million in NYSE Euronext stock. In addition, they would receive more stock after the sale of the AMEX's building at 86 Trinity Place, a landmarked art deco building it moved into in 1921 that sits only blocks away from the World Trade Center site. The deal will give NYSE a second US license for an option exchange and make the NYSE the #3 US options marketplace after CME and CBOT.

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