MarketAxess-ICE merger antitrust review pushed to October 29
MarketAxess and Intercontinental Exchange refiled their premerger notification forms to give the Department of Justice more time to review the deal
Published
Chart: MKTX, one-minute prices, three sessions
MarketAxess said the waiting period tied to its proposed merger with Intercontinental Exchange has been extended after the two companies withdrew and refiled their premerger notification forms under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act on September 25, 2026. That refiling gives the Department of Justice additional time to review the transaction.
The waiting period is now set to expire at 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time on October 29, 2026, unless it is terminated early or extended again.
The merger still needs approval from MarketAxess stockholders at a special meeting scheduled for October 29, along with other closing conditions. The deal is still expected to close in the first half of 2027.
The extension pushes back the antitrust review clock but does not change the deal's timeline: the special meeting and the new waiting-period deadline both fall on October 29, and the first-half-2027 closing guidance is unchanged. Voluntary refilings of this kind are common in large exchange mergers and do not by themselves signal opposition from the Department of Justice. But given the department's active scrutiny of financial-market infrastructure elsewhere, traders are likely to treat this as a data point worth watching. For now, the move looks procedural rather than a shift in deal terms or the odds of completion, though the market will want confirmation that the department is not building toward a second request for information.