James Moore: Liffe the jewel in the crown of NYSE deal

The face of American capitalism for more than 200 years is about to fall for a company that's been about for just 12.

The New York stock exchange has agreed to a takeover by IntercontinentalExchange and it is rather a sign of the times that the deal is nothing to do with what might popularly be seen as the NYSE's core business, the stock exchange itself.

It's actually about derivatives, or bits of paper, and the clearing of trades involving them. Liffe, the London futures exchange, is the jewel in the crown of this $8.2bn (£5bn) merger.

Who would have believed that when Euronext beat the London Stock Exchange in an auction for Liffe with a bid of just £555m.