NYSE Euronext Merger Off, Where To From Here?

About one year ago the German stock market Deutsche Boerse and the NYSE Euronext (NYX) agreed to a merger of the two stock exchange companies. The deal valued the NYSE Euronext at $9.5 billion or about $40 per share. The all stock transaction would have left NYSE shareholders owning 40 percent of the world's largest stock and derivative exchanges company. Now approximately one year after the merger was announced, European officials announced they would not approve the merger which would make the new company the dominant player in the European financial markets. Post merger meltdown, investors need to evaluate NYSE Euronext on its own merits.

NYSE Euronext owns the New York Stock Exchange, European stock exchanges in Amsterdam, Brussels, Paris and Lisbon and the LIFFE derivatives exchange in London. The exchanges handle trading for over 8,000 stocks, closed end funds and exchange traded funds. The growth of electronic trading has