A day after the US Department of Justice (DoJ) put its stamp of approval on Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME)'s attempted buyout of Chicago Board of Trade (CBoT), a persistent Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) fired off another enhanced offer on 12 June.
While DoJ's approval removed a cloud over the CME bid, the renewed ICE proposal included $2.5bn in cash to CBoT shareholders who were concerned about sagging share prices if ICE wins.
ICE has led in the public relations battle in recent weeks and chairman and CEO Jeff Sprecher has won over many CBoT shareholders in his direct meetings as well as by consistently tweaking the ICE offer to appease those members, who collectively represent the majority of shares. Whether the ICE bid has won over a majority of shareholders is debatable, but many of them believe the latest ICE offer has put pressure on CME to increase its offer...