NYSE owner Intercontinental Exchange explores US$30bil take-over of eBay

EBay's shares ended trading on Tuesday up 8.7% on the news to $37.41, giving it a market value of $30.4 billion. ICE shares fell 7.5% to $92.59, giving the company a market value of $51.6 billion, as investors fretted a deal could be dilutive for the stock exchange operator.

NEW YORK: Intercontinental Exchange Inc (ICE), the owner of the New York Stock Exchange, has reached out to eBay Inc to explore a potential combination with the e-commerce company, people familiar with the matter said on Tuesday.

The acquisition would exceed $30 billion and represent a substantial departure from ICE's focus on financial markets. The move would call on its technological expertise in running markets to extract efficiencies from eBay's marketplace platform, which connects buyers and sellers of goods around the world.