ICE

Jeffrey Sprecher and an early team launched ICE in May 2000 to bring fragmented, telephone-based energy trading onto an electronic market. Its background included an electricity-pricing technology business Sprecher acquired in 1997.⁠[1]

ICE acquired London’s International Petroleum Exchange in 2001. Brent and Gasoil futures moved to fully electronic trading in February 2005; ICE completed its own initial public offering later that year.⁠[1][2]

The January 2007 NYBOT acquisition added sugar, cotton, coffee and US Dollar Index markets, as well as clearing capabilities. ICE launched ICE Clear Europe in 2008 and acquired The Clearing Corporation in 2009, expanding its clearing infrastructure.⁠[1][2]

ICE completed its acquisition of NYSE Euronext at an announced value of approximately $11 billion in cash and stock. It retained the New York Stock Exchange brand and 11 Wall Street trading floor, establishing dual headquarters in Atlanta and New York.⁠[3]

ICE announced the closing of Euronext’s IPO after trading began on June 20 in Paris, Amsterdam and Brussels. The separation restored the European exchange business as an independent listed company, generating proceeds for debt repayment, growth investment and shareholder returns.⁠[4]

ICE completed its acquisition of Interactive Data Corporation, citing a transaction value of approximately $5.2 billion. The business supplied fixed-income valuations, reference data and real-time market information, expanding services beyond trading.⁠[5]

ICE completed its approximately $11 billion acquisition of Ellie Mae, connecting loan-origination technology with MERS and Simplifile. It had taken a majority stake in MERS in 2016 and full ownership in 2018, then acquired Simplifile in 2019, building its mortgage-digitization business.⁠[6]

ICE completed its acquisition of housing-finance software, data and analytics company Black Knight. To address competition concerns, it agreed to divest Optimal Blue and the Empower loan-origination system to Constellation Software subsidiaries; those disposals were separate from the overall acquisition.⁠[7]

The FTC approved a final order resolving its ICE–Black Knight antitrust concerns, requiring divestiture of Optimal Blue and Empower and transitional support. It also imposed prior-approval or notification requirements on specified future acquisitions to preserve competition in mortgage-origination software and pricing tools.⁠[8]

The SEC announced ICE’s agreement to pay $10 million to settle charges that it caused nine subsidiaries to miss timely cyber-intrusion reporting. The SEC said ICE waited four days to notify subsidiaries’ legal and compliance personnel after learning of a VPN intrusion. ICE and its subsidiaries neither admitted nor denied the findings and accepted a cease-and-desist order.⁠[9]

ICE announced plans to invest up to $2 billion in prediction-market platform PolymarketPolymarketPolymarket is a prediction market platform founded by Shayne Coplan in 2020, on which users buy and sell shares in the outcomes of political, sports, financial, cultural, and other events, with trading prices regarded as the market’s estimate of the probability that an event will occur. It rose to prominence during the 2024 US election, returned to the US market in 2025 by acquiring a licensed exchange and clearinghouse, and received a major investment from Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange, while facing gambling-regulation and insider-trading scrutiny in US states and several countries.Open the full entry at an approximately $8 billion pre-money valuation, alongside event-data distribution and tokenization initiatives. The maximum commitment did not mean the full amount had already been paid.⁠[10]

ICE announced a minority investment in OKXOKXOKX is a global digital-asset trading platform that began operating in 2017 under the name OKEx. Different regional entities provide trading, wallet, payment and related services; the global platform, OKCoin and locally licensed entities must be distinguished.Open the full entry at a $25 billion valuation and a board seat, without disclosing its investment amount. The parties planned data-licensing and market-connectivity collaboration.⁠[11]

ICE announced a completed additional $600 million cash investment and expected purchases of up to $40 million in secondary shares. It identified the initial October 2025 investment as $1 billion and said the new round’s valuation would be disclosed after closing; the earlier $8 billion figure was not the new round’s price.⁠[12]

In its shareholder letter, ICE reported 2025 revenue net of transaction expenses of $9.9 billion: $5.4 billion from exchanges, $2.4 billion from fixed income and data services, and $2.1 billion from mortgage technology. These are segment revenues, not assets managed for customers.⁠[13]

ICE announced a definitive agreement to acquire MarketAxess for $167 per share in cash, implying approximately $6 billion in equity value and $5.7 billion in enterprise value. Both boards approved; closing was expected in the first half of 2027, subject to shareholder and regulatory approvals and other conditions.⁠[14]

ICE’s exchange and clearing networks cover energy, interest rates and equities, with Brent, Gasoil and TTF among its energy benchmarks. Its data business supplies pricing, indices and analytics; mortgage technology supports origination and servicing through systems including Encompass and MSP.⁠[13][15]

Jeffrey Sprecher is founder, chair and CEO. The official website is ice.com; its X and YouTubeYouTubeYouTube is Google’s video-sharing and creator platform, founded in 2005 by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim and acquired by Google in 2006. Built around video uploading, viewing, and creator earnings, the platform has developed Shorts, YouTube Music, Premium, YouTube TV, and products for children, and is headquartered in San Bruno, California, United States.Open the full entry handles are @ICE_Markets, and its LinkedInLinkedInLinkedIn is a social networking platform for professionals. It was founded in 2002 by Reid Hoffman and others, launched in 2003, and listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 2011; after Microsoft acquired it for approximately $26.2 billion in 2016, it became a wholly owned Microsoft subsidiary. Its revenue comes from membership subscriptions, advertising, and recruitment solutions.Open the full entry page is /company/icemarkets/. These channels identify the Intercontinental Exchange group.⁠[2][16][17][18]