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A formal merger document that can be presented to the companies' boards is not yet prepared, a separate source familiar with the situation said. Other sources said the NYSE Euronext board is also expected to meet on Sunday, but the details of what it might discuss were unclear.

The two companies declined to comment.

Deutsche Boerse and NYSE Euronext said on Wednesday they were in advanced talks to merge, just hours after London Stock Exchange unveiled a bid for Canadian market operator TMX Group Inc.

Most of the tough decisions, including the composition of a combined Deutsche Boerse-NYSE Euronext board, have been made, but a deal is not done yet, the first source said, adding that the exchanges are working toward an announcement on Tuesday.

Important issues such as the exact exchange ratio and premium for the deal are yet to be decided, the source said.

All the existing brand names will stay in place in a combined company, the source said. The only question on that front is around the name of a new Dutch holding company being contemplated in a merger, and that has not been decided, the source said.

Other exchanges said they were considering striking their own deals or looking to take advantage of the distraction, in early signs of ripples through the world's capital markets.

CBOE Holdings Inc, IntercontinentalExchange Inc, BATS Global Markets and Chi-X Europe all weighed in on Friday on the deals that would see Europeans acquire the New York Stock Exchange and the Toronto Stock Exchange.

"Every exchange that wasn't involved in the two mergers -- the four that were not involved -- had to at lunch on Wednesday be asking themselves, 'Should I be involved in some way?' and calling their bankers and thinking strategically," said Alan Dean, CBOE's chief financial officer.

"It has to be a jolt, I think, for all market participants in this industry," he said at a conference hosted by Credit Suisse.

CBOE, the largest of the U.S. options venues, is seen as a likely takeover target. The other public U.S. operators -- ICE, Nasdaq OMX Group Inc and CME Group Inc -- are mostly larger players with histories of being buyers.

The Deutsche Boerse-NYSE Euronext deal would create the world's largest exchange company and could put pressure on others to keep pace as the companies shift into more profitable derivatives businesses to stave off competition from upstart stock-trading venues.

Jeffrey Sprecher, chief executive of the futures-oriented ICE, said his rivals are attempting to "muscle their way in or acquire their way into the derivatives space," reinforcing the value of that business.

"It bodes very very well for my company to have a lot of these people distracted by with these complicated mergers, these cross-border mergers that are going to involve a lot of regulation and regulatory intervention to get these deals completed," Sprecher told the conference.