Exchange Merger Gloom

Duncan Niederauer, the chief executive of NYSE Euronext, has stated that he misjudged the process that the EU Commission would use to examine the anti-trust issues in the proposed deal with Deutsche Borse.

The 27 EU Commissioners will need to vote by Febryary1st to decide if the deal will be allowed to proceed. It is understood that the competition commissioner, Mr. Aluminia, is opposing the deal on the grounds that it restricts EU competition for futures business. Mr. Niederauer had believed that the deal would have been viewed in global terms rather than from a purely EU perspective.