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Details of what the NYSE Euronext board might discuss or what it might vote on 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.

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 larger players with histories of being buyers.

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

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

"I 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.

"We feel very opportunistic right now that we're in an excellent position to take advantage of their downturn."

Shares of U.S. exchange operators were little changed Friday afternoon after a roller-coaster week in which NYSE Euronext and Nasdaq OMX soared to multi-year highs. NYSE Euronext shares were off 0.2 percent at $37.74. Deutsche Boerse closed 0.8 percent higher at 61.62 euros.

LAYERS OF COMPETITION

In Europe, trading venues BATS and Chi-X said they extended their merger talks to secure a deal, which has taken on added importance by the Deutsche Boerse-NYSE Euronext talks.