Courtesy of Pam Martens.
New York Stock Exhange
If the general public knew the history of the company that has announced it is acquiring the New York Stock Exchange, there would be a loud clamor for the anti-trust division of the Justice Department to become involved. But the larger question is, where has the Justice Department been on this issue for more than a decade?
The company planning to acquire the New York Stock Exchange in an $8.2 billion cash and stock deal is the Atlanta-headquartered Intercontinental Exchange, known on Wall Street simply as ICE.
ICE went public in 2005. There are two paragraphs in its offering statement that are simply breathtaking:
“In May 2000, our company was formed, and Continental Power Exchange, Inc. contributed to us all of its assets, which consisted principally of electronic trading technology, and its liabilities, in return for a minority equity interest in our company. In connection with our formation, seven leading wholesale commodities market participants acquired equity interests in our company, either directly or through affiliated entities. We refer to these leading commodities market participants, or their affiliates, as the case may be, as our Initial Shareholders. Our Initial Shareholders are BP Products North America Inc. (formerly known as BP Exploration and Oil, Inc.), DB Structured Products, Inc. (formerly known as Deutsche Bank Sharps Pixley Inc.), The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc., Morgan Stanley Capital Group Inc., S T Exchange Inc. (an affiliate of Royal Dutch Shell), Société Générale Financial Corporation and Total Investments USA Inc. (an affiliate of Total S.A.).
“In November 2000, six leading natural gas and power companies, which we refer to as the Gas and Power Firms, acquired equity interests in our company. The Gas and Power Firms are AEP Investments, Inc. (formerly known as AEP Energy Services, Inc.), Aquila Southwest Processing, L.P., Duke Energy Trading Exchange, LLC, El Paso Merchant Energy North America Company, Reliant Energy Trading Exchange, Inc. and Mirant Americas Energy Marketing, L.P.”
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