CME-Nymex merger shaken by late details of payout

Just days before decisive merger votes, members of Nymex Holdings' New York Mercantile Exchange have been surprised to find their after-tax payment from purchaser CME Group is much less than they expected. Chicago Mercantile Exchange parent CME had offered to buy out the 816 members of its New York rival by paying each $750,000. Those members now find that CME plans to treat the payments as "ordinary income" for tax purposes. That cuts the value of the payouts to $472,000 each, assuming Nymex members are taxed at the highest federal level.