ICE CEO on NYSE Takeover, What’s Next

ICE completed its monumental takeover of the NYSE Wednesday, and the CEO of the combined new company says in the long run the merger will make it easier for the average investor to participate in global markets.

“What we do is help people manage risk, and invest in great companies, and [make] great investments for retirement portfolios,” ICE CEO Jeff Sprecher told FBN’s Nicole Petallides. “We want to make that easy; we want to make it transparent. Easy in, easy out. With a lot of information. And the digital age is allowing that to happen.”

Click the video above to watch the full interview.

Sprecher said the first order of business will to be take a fresh look at the newly formed company and “curate what we own.”

“We have some overlaps, we’re going to work on that now. I hope to be able to announce it within the next week or two,” he said.

In the wake of the Twitter (NYSE:TWTR) IPO, Sprecher said anyone who couldn’t get in on the initial offering didn’t miss the boat, as the micro-blogging service is “only in their early days, they have a long bright future. That’s why we all want to own them.”

Beyond that, Sprecher says the company’s strategy for growth will be to “bring people back together, match investors with the capital, talk about it and let these people talk about their long-term plans.”

With more companies like Twitter emerging and going public, Sprecher says he is optimistic about the future and believes in the next five years, the market floor will be a more “vibrant” and exciting place to trade on.

“That Twitter IPO brought vibrancy back here…it was exciting, I was supposed to be in a meeting and I canceled and delayed my meeting so I could watch the capital formation there. Here is a bunch of young guys that put this company together, and then boom in an instant $30 billion of capital became available to them … they can [now use to] take that company to the next level,”  he said.

When asked about his plans to go forward after the merger, Sprecher said he hopes to bring a modern touch to the now 221-year-old company.

“I want to put what we did in [Euronext] into this 1792 brand [NYSE], and that is to be innovative, take risks, try new things, to try new technology, to be open and transparent and to be good people.”

Even though there are major changes occurring for the NYSE, some things will remain.

“The last time I looked, [the name of this building] was carved in granite…it is not going to change. And nor is its location and nor is its iconic nature,” said Sprecher.