Finance & economics | Market making

Why Intercontinental Exchange wants to buy eBay

Explaining a new and weird putative corporate combination

|NEW YORK

THE HIGH STREET and Wall Street feel like very different places. One is lined with soft-lit storefronts showing tempting goods, to entice the customer in. The other is home to rows of gleaming skyscrapers, with snooty receptionists and fiercely guarded lift banks, in order to keep the riff-raff out. But the core purpose is similar. Both are venues for interested parties to get together and trade things—be they Dior suits or shares in Microsoft.

This article appeared in the Finance & economics section of the print edition under the headline “Making an offer”

Meet the new boss: What it takes to be a CEO in the 2020s

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