Mergers and acquisitions
On 3 May 2000, it was announced that the London Stock Exchange would merge with Deutsche Börse, though the deal fell through before the merger could be realized.[8]
In 2001, Deutsche Börse tried again to merge with the London Stock Exchange, followed by a takeover bid in late 2004, but both offers were rejected by the LSE.[9] After CEO Werner Seifert was forced to resign by the main shareholders in 2005, Deutsche Börse changed plans and entered into advanced negotiations for a merger with Euronext which would have brought two of the biggest stock exchanges in Europe into one holding. The New York Stock Exchange beat out Deutsche Börse's final bid for Euronext in 2006.
Since 2007, Deutsche Börse operates the joint venture Scoach with SIX Swiss Exchange to provide a European derivative trading platform.[10] In July 2015, Deutsche Börse bought the 360T company for €725 million[11] and also acquired all shares (100%) of the joint venture STOXX AG for a purchase price of CHF 650 million from the SIX Group.[12] On September 16, 2019, Deutsche Börse has announced its acquisition of Axioma Inc. which was combined with STOXX and DAX to form Qontigo.[13] As part of the transaction, Deutsche Börse has entered into a strategic partnership with General Atlantic, a global equity firm.[14] In March 2022, Deutsche Börse announced the acquisition of 100% of Luxembourg-based fund data manager Kneip.[15] In April 2023, Deutsche Börse agreed to buy Danish investment management software firm SimCorp for €3.9 billion.[16] As part of this transaction, the former Axioma part of Qontigo was integrated with SimCorp, while the STOXX and DAX divisions were included in a new subsidiary ISS STOXX. In August 2023, Deutsche Börse announced the acquisition of the Luxembourg-based distributed ledger technology company, FundsDLT.[17]
Attempted NYSE Euronext merger
On 7 December 2008, Deutsche Börse rebuffed rumors that it might join with NYSE Euronext (the company formed as a result of the merger of NYSE and Euronext) to create the world's leading stock exchange.[18] While the company claims that it pursued the matter, on 8 December 2008, it reported that talks which began on 25 November 2008, were closed without any result due to differences in valuation of the company.[19]
Deutsche Börse had also considered the acquisition again in 2009. On 9 February 2011, reports suggested that NYSE Euronext and Deutsche Börse were in advanced talks about an all-stock merger.[20] Deutsche Börse was in advanced talks to buy NYSE Euronext in a deal that would create the world's largest trading powerhouse. The shares of both companies were temporarily frozen on the news due to the risk of large price movements and clarifications of the deal. A successful deal would see the new company becoming the world's largest stock exchange operator with a market capitalisation of listed companies equal to US$15 trillion, US$13.39 trillion of which is part of the much larger NYSE Euronext, which is approximately six times the size of Deutsche Börse.
President and deputy CEO of NYSE Euronext Dominique Cerutti
Failed merger with London Stock Exchange Group
In March 2016, the company announced it had reached an agreement with London Stock Exchange Group to merge.[29] The companies were to be brought under a new holding company, with a temporary placeholder name of UK TopCo, and would have retained both headquarters in London and Frankfurt. The deal needed approval from regulators in the European Union, the U.S. and Russia. The London Stock Exchange said Russian approval was needed because it owns Exactpro, a firm with offices in Russia specializing in quality assurance for exchanges and financial organizations.[30] The European Commission opened an in-depth investigation into the proposed Deutsche Börse/LSEG merger on 28 September 2016.[31] The European Commission delayed its decision on the deal by 15 working days to 6 March 2017. LSEG planned to hive off the French half of its LCH SA arm in a bid to ease EU concerns about the deal, although the companies had not formally submitted any concessions to the commission.[32]
Recent
In October 2017, two institutional shareholders, who at the time held more than 6.5% of Deutsche Börse, called for the resignation of the chairman.[36] On 16 November 2017, Theodor Weimer was appointed as new CEO of Deutsche Börse AG,[37] effective January 2018.
In September 2024, the European Commission said it had carried out unannounced inspections at the offices of Deutsche Börse over potential anti-competitive practices.[38] On 6 November 2025, the Commission officially opened an investigation into possible collusion between Nasdaq and Deutsche Börse over the listing, trading and clearing of financial derivatives ; this probe follows the unannounced inspections at Nasdaq and Deutsche Börse in September 2024.[39]
Allfunds Acquisition
In January 2026, Deutsche Börse agreed to acquire wealth management company Allfunds for €5.3 billion (~$6.19 billion). The deal was structured as a cash and stock deal and Allfunds shareholders are entitled to further dividends pending results. The deal was expected to close by 1H 2027.[40]
