Intercontinental Exchange to buy MarketAxess in $6B deal, expands bond trading

Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) agreed to buy MarketAxess Holdings for around $6 billion in an all-cash deal, with an enterprise value of $5.7 billion.

ICE will pay $167 per MarketAxess share, a 33% premium over the closing price.

MarketAxess is an electronic bond trading platform connecting 2,100 institutional investors and broker-dealers across 90 countries, enabling trading in corporate bonds, U.S. Treasuries, and other fixed-income securities.

The acquisition aims to create a single platform combining pre-trade analytics, electronic execution, and post-trade compliance tools.