Berkshire Hathaway, the investment company run by Warren Buffett, made a bid to buy NYSE Euronext, the largest stock exchange operator in the world by market capitalization of listed companies in November 2012, CNBC said, citing unnamed sources.
It remains an open question, what was the exact sum of money Mr. Buffet was ready to pay for NYSE Euronext. According to sources, the proposal was less than the one of the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE). The latter agreed to buy NYSE Euronext in December 2012 in a transaction valued at $8.2 billion.
The deal between NYSE and ICE is to be completed in the second half of the year. It was the second attempt of ICE to buy the exchange operator – the first one was in 2011 together with NASDAQ OMX Group. They offered $11 billion, but the deal was revoked by the U.S. Department of Justice.
In 2011 Deutsche Boerse also intended to purchase NYSE Euronext and was ready to pay $9.5 billion, but the deal was eventually blocked by the European Commission.
The parent company of the New York Stock Exchange is now called NYSE Euronext, following a merger with the European exchange Euronext in 2007. ICE, founded in 2000, specializes in electronic commodity trading and derivatives.