EU blocks German take-over of US stock exchange

The European Commission has blocked a merger between Deutsche Boerse and the New York Stock Exchange, the two largest players in trading of derivatives - a financial product said to have helped cause the 2008 financial crisis.

"The merger would have led to the worsening of conditions for companies trying to access financial instruments and would have harmed the European economy as a whole ... In the end, we had no alternative but to prohibit the merger," EU anti-trust commissioner Joaqu...