Stocks, Mergers & Acquisitions | featured news

Nasdaq OMX Group Inc agreed to buy electronic Treasuries-trading platform eSpeed from BGC Partners Inc for $750 million in cash, providing the exchange operator an entry into one of the world's largest and most liquid cash markets.

Talk of more merger and acquisitions is sending stock prices slightly higher in early trading, setting the market up to continue a seven-week rally.

The New York Stock Exchange is being sold to a little-known rival in Atlanta for about $8 billion, ending more than two centuries of independence for the iconic Big Board. The buyer, IntercontinentalExchange, a 12-year-old exchange that deals in investing contracts known as futures, said Thursday that little would change for the trading floor in Manhattan's financial district.

The exchange operators extended the deadline for completing their planned tie-up to March 31 while European competition authorities continue an in-depth probe of the deal.

Nasdaq OMX has stepped up its opposition to the planned merger between NYSE Euronext and Deutsche Börse and said the deal would "irrevocably destroy" competition in Europe's listed-derivatives markets, just as the European Commission nears a decision on the tie-up.

The top executive of NYSE Euronext said a critical European Union review of the company's agreed-upon tie-up with Deutsche Börse will likely result in conditions being placed on the combined company, rather than an outright block of the deal.

Germany's Deutsche Boerse is in advanced talks to buy NYSE Euronext, and the London Stock Exchange has agreed to buy Canadian stock market operator TMX, as exchanges globally look for ways to boost their markets and cut costs.