MarketAxess Holdings, Inc. (MKTX)

MarketAxess reported third-quarter 2026 revenue of $210.4 million on 23 October, up 1 percent from a year earlier 2.

Net income was $54.0 million, down from $68.3 million a year earlier 2. Merger-related expenses of $13.1 million were part of the cost 2.

The bigger story is the pending sale of the company to Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), under a merger agreement signed on 29 July 2026 3.

The merger agreement provides for MarketAxess to survive as a wholly owned subsidiary of ICE 3.

Stockholders vote at a special meeting on 29 October 2026 5. U.S. antitrust agencies granted early termination of the waiting period on 21 October 2026 4. The company says closing is currently expected in the first half of 2027 5.

MarketAxess was founded in 2000 to make bond trading more efficient 1. Before that, institutional investors traded bonds by telephone with a limited set of broker-dealers 1.

By 2007 its platforms let investors trade electronically with over thirty dealers 1. In the 2007-2008 financial crisis it added many regional dealers, because larger dealers cut back their market making 1.

In 2013 it launched Open Trading, an all-to-all marketplace where investors can also trade with each other, not only with dealers 1.

It acquired Pragma in 2023, adding automated and algorithmic trading 1. In 2025 it completed a majority stake in RFQ-hub, a quote platform for ETF and derivatives markets 1.

In 2025 revenue grew 3.6 percent to $846.3 million, as commissions, the fees on bond trades, rose 3.2 percent to $734.6 million 1.

Credit trading volume rose 10.0 percent, but the average fee per million dollars traded fell 7.6 percent, so credit variable fees grew only 1.6 percent 1.

Expenses grew 5.9 percent, so operating income was almost flat at $341.8 million, up 0.3 percent 1.

Net income fell 9.9 percent to $246.9 million, because the company set aside a reserve for unrecognized tax benefits, which raised its tax charge 1.

What it sells

MarketAxess runs electronic platforms where about 2,100 investor and broker-dealer firms trade bonds 1. Open Trading, its all-to-all pool, links about 1,800 firms 1.

In 2025 commissions were 86.8 percent of revenue, information services 6.3 percent, post-trade services 5.3 percent and technology services 1.6 percent 1.

Trading

Credit means corporate, emerging markets, eurobonds, municipal bonds and leveraged loans 1. Rates means U.S. Treasury, agency and European government bonds 1.

In the latest quarter, average daily block trading rose 21 percent to $5.4 billion and portfolio trading, large baskets of bonds priced together, rose 37 percent to $1.9 billion 2.

Data, post-trade and technology

Information services sells data drawn from trading on the platforms 1. Post-trade services handles regulatory reporting and trade matching 1. Technology services supplies tools such as Polaris, an order system for New York Stock Exchange floor brokers 1.

People, rivals and problems

Chris Concannon is chief executive 2. At the end of 2025 the company had 868 employees, 554 of them in the U.S. 1.

Its filed rivals in credit and municipal bonds include Tradeweb, Bloomberg, Trumid, TP ICAP and ICE itself, through its Bondpoint, TMC Bonds and Creditex businesses 1.

Between 6 and 15 October 2026, three stockholders filed suits saying the merger proxy was incomplete or misleading 3. The company denies this and added disclosures to moot the claims 3.

The umbrella, in words

MarketAxess owns a majority stake in RFQ-hub Holdings LLC, completed in 2025 1. It also owns Pragma, acquired in 2023 1.

Its subsidiaries in the U.K. and the Netherlands act as approved reporting and publication arrangements for European rules 1.

It leases about 83,000 square feet at 55 Hudson Yards in New York for its headquarters, with the lease expiring in August 2034 1.

If the merger closes, ICE would own all of MarketAxess 3.

The special meeting on 29 October 2026 asks stockholders to adopt the merger agreement 5.

The company says closing is currently expected in the first half of 2027 5. It still needs stockholder approval and other required regulatory approvals 4.

The company says it plans to keep focusing on technology and automation to make trade execution more efficient for clients 1.

It also says its U.S. high-grade and high-yield volume of about $8.7 billion a day in 2025 was just 17.0 percent of an addressable market of about $51.2 billion 1.

No clue on file points to a new direction yet.