Intercontinental Exchange agreed to acquire MarketAxess, an electronic trading platform for fixed-income markets, for $6 billion.

Intercontinental Exchange, known as ICE, will pay $167 a share in cash for MarketAxess, the companies said. That represents a 33% premium based on MarketAxess's closing price on Wednesday.

MarketAxess shares were halted pre-market on Thursday at $125.72.

MarketAxess enables electronic trading in corporate bonds, municipal bonds, emerging market debt, Eurobonds and U.S. Treasuries. Its platform has roughly 2,100 institutional investors and broker-dealers.

ICE provides an established bond trading platform with data and global indexes. By adding MarketAxess, ICE will serve every segment of the fixed-income market within a single ecosystem, it said.

The deal has been unanimously approved by both companies' boards, and is expected to close in the first half of 2027.