Consolidation is not a new concept in the derivatives arena, as rumours of a merger between Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) and Chicago Board of Trade (CBoT) over the last hundred years alone would testify. Meanwhile, exchange mergers in the wider market have for some time centred on the 'for sale' sign many have hypothetically posted at LSE.
The first of 2005's bids for LSE resulted in shareholder discontent for the interested party, Deutsche Börse, as it was deemed to be an inflated price to pay for the London exchange. Since then there have been a score of other suitors and two of those parties, Deutsche Börse and, its European rival, Euronext have themselves begun to look at the prospect of merging with each other.
Talk that their derivatives subsidiaries, Euronext Liffe and Eurex, could become one, and more recently rumours that New York Mercantile Exchange (Nymex) and CME could again...