EU REGULATORS have blocked the $7.4bn (£4.7bn) deal to merge exchange operators Deutsche Boerse and NYSE Euronext, saying the combined firm would have killed competition in the European futures market.
The two companies are now set to abandon the plan, which would have created the world’s biggest stock exchange.
Neither firm was willing to placate the EU regulator by disposing of its European futures business, causing the deal to be blocked. The combined firm would have handled over 95 per cent of such trades.
Deutsche Boerse said it was a “black day for Europe” and that in the future the continent would struggle to compete in global financial markets.
The deal was first unveiled in February 2011 and had been approved in the US.
