CME, Dow Jones get antitrust approval for index services deal

CME Group Inc., the world's largest futures market, and Dow Jones & Co. received antitrust approval to form a joint venture that will offer equity-index services.

The Federal Trade Commission and U.S. Department of Justice granted early termination of the companies' application, CME Group and Dow Jones said today in a statement.

News Corp., owner of Dow Jones, will contribute a unit that runs more than 130,000 stock indexes including the benchmark Dow Jones Industrial Average to a joint venture called CME Group Index Services. CME will shift some of its market-data operations to the new business, and will own 90 percent of the combined company. The venture will issue about $613 million in debt, using the proceeds to pay $607.5 million to News Corp.

The companies expect the transaction to close by the end of the month, according to today's statement.