He Bought a Nearly Bankrupt Company From Warren Buffett for $1,000 and Turned It Into a $98 Billion Giant
In 1997, Intercontinental Exchange founder and CEO Jeffrey Sprecher bought the near-bankrupt Continental Power Exchange from Warren Buffett’s utility, MidAmerican Energy, for $1,000 and assumed its debt. ICE was founded in 2000 and later bought NYSE Euronext in 2013, making it the owner of the New York Stock Exchange; as of January 2026, ICE’s market […]
This is a historical profile of Intercontinental Exchange founder Jeffrey Sprecher, who bought the near-bankrupt Continental Power Exchange from Warren Buffett's MidAmerican Energy for $1,000 in 1997 and assumed its debt. ICE was founded in 2000 and acquired NYSE Euronext in 2013, giving it ownership of the New York Stock Exchange, and its market value is cited at roughly $98 billion as of January 2026. The story is a retrospective on corporate dealmaking with no direct crypto-market catalyst, so it carries little actionable trading significance.
